Step by step guidance of calling Iron Python Function From C# 4.0

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Introduction

IronPython is a scripting language. It is am implementation of the python program language.Written in C#,it is tightly integrated with the .NET Framework.

This small article will demonstrate step by step as to how we can call IronPython 2.6 function from C#4.0 using the dynamic keyword

Using the code

Step 1: Download the latest version of Iron Python from Code Plex

Step 2: Install the software.

Step 3: For this demo we are using first.py python file located inside the Tutorial Folder

The file has two methods

a) Add

b) Factorial.

For this demo purpose, let us only invoke the Add method that performs addition of two numbers being supplied as parameters to the method.

Step 4: We are using a console application for the demo purpose. The very first thing we need to do is to add the dlls as shown under

Step 5: The function invocation happens in just three steps as shown below

class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //Step 1: 
            //Creating a new script runtime             
            var ironPythonRuntime = Python.CreateRuntime();

            try
            {
                //Step 2:
                //Load the Iron Python file/script into the memory
                //Should be resolve at runtime
                dynamic loadIPython = ironPythonRuntime.UseFile("first.py");

                //Step 3:
                //Invoke the method and print the result
                Console.WriteLine(
                string.Format("Addition result from IronPython method for  {0} and {1} is {2}", 
                                  100,200, loadIPython.add(100, 200))
                                 );
            }
            catch (FileNotFoundException ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
            }
            Console.ReadKey(true);
            
        }
    }

The very first line

var ironPythonRuntime = Python.CreateRuntime();

loads the Iron Python libraries along with the DLR code needed to execute the python script.

Second line

dynamic loadIPython = ironPythonRuntime.UseFile("first.py");

loads the python script into memory. The significance of the dynamic variable(loadIPython) here is being the fact that Python calls are resolve at runtime.

The last line i.e.

Console.WriteLine(
string.Format("Addition result from IronPython method for {0} 
and {1} is {2}", 100,200, 
loadIPython.add(100, 200)) );

Is simply to invoke the Python method and to display the result.

Step 6: And here is the output

References

Iron Python

Conclusion:

In this short tutorial we have seen how to invoke IronPython methods from C# 4.0.

Comments on the topic are highly appreciated for the improvement of the topic.

Thanks for reading the article.