Have you ever came across the situation where you have to call C function using python? This article is going to help you on a very basic level and if you have not come across any situation like this, you enjoy knowing how it is possible.
First, let’s write one simple function using C and generate a shared library of the file. Let’s say file name is function.c.
C
int myFunction(int num){ if (num == 0) // if number is 0, do not perform any operation. return 0; else // if number is power of 2, return 1 else return 0 return ((num & (num - 1)) == 0 ? 1 : 0) ;} |
Compile this :
cc -fPIC -shared -o libfun.so function.c
Using ctypes(foreign function interface) library to call C function from Python
The above statement will generate a shared library with the name libfun.so. Now, let’s see how to make use of it in python. In python, we have one library called ctypes. Using this library we can use C function in python.
Let’s say file name is function.py.
Python3
import ctypesNUM = 16 # libfun loaded to the python file# using fun.myFunction(),# C function can be accessed# but type of argument is the problem. fun = ctypes.CDLL("libfun.so") # Or full path to file # Now whenever argument# will be passed to the function # ctypes will check it. fun.myFunction.argtypes = [ctypes.c_int]# now we can call this# function using instant (fun)# returnValue is the value# return by function written in C# codereturnVale = fun.myFunction(NUM) |
