Build and Debug Excel add-in using XLW Project and Visual Studio 2022 C++

[MZhu]

Dear All,

I am creating an Excel add-in using the XLW project on GitHub in Visual Studio 2022 C++.

I have done the following:

Create a solution MyFunction which contains two projects MyFunction and XLW.

In MyFunction, Configuration Properties -> General -> Configuration Type is set to Static Library.

In MyFunction,

#pragma once

double EchoDouble(double x);

#include "my_header.h"

double EchoDouble(double x)
{
    return x;
}

In XLW, the XLW package is installed via NuGet Package Manager, and

• Configuration Properties -> General -> Configuration Type is set to Dynamic Library.
• Configuration Properties -> C/C++ -> Additional Include Directories is set to the folder which contains the solution.
• Configuration Properties -> Linker -> General -> Additional Library Directiories is set to the folder which contains MyFunction.lib.
• Configuration Properties -> Linker -> Input -> Additional Dependencies is set to MyFunction.lib.

In XLW,

#ifndef TEST_H
#define TEST_H

#include <xlw/MyContainers.h>
#include <xlw/CellMatrix.h>
#include <xlw/DoubleOrNothing.h>
#include <xlw/ArgList.h> 
    
using namespace xlw;

//<xlw:libraryname=MyTestLibrary


double MyEchoDouble(double x);

#endif

#include "cppinterface.h"
#include "MyFunction/my_header.h"

#pragma warning (disable : 4996)

double MyEchoDouble(double x)
{
    return EchoDouble(x);
}

MyFunction is built first and then XLW. Load the generated add-in XLW.xll in Excel and MyEchoDouble works.

To debug, I can do Debug -> Attach to Process -> Attach to Native code and select the Excel instance. It works fine.

Alternatively, I do

• Configuration Properties -> Debugging -> Command is set to the path for EXCEL.EXE
• Configuration Properties -> Debugging -> Command Arguments is set to $(TargetPath)
• Set XLW as startup project.

Press F5, I get the error message:

Exception Thrown​

Exception thrown at 0x00007FFE8496B74B in EXCEL.EXE: 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x0000000000000000.

Frame not in module​

The current stack frame was not found in a loaded module. Source cannot be shown for this location.

My questions are

1. Is the way I set up the projects correct? What I want to achieve is that all functions are implemented in MyFunction project. Then corresponding Excel functions are done in XLW project, and the add-in is generated by the XLW project.
2. What went wrong with the alternative debugging method?

Really appreciate any advice and suggestion. Thank you all.

FYI, this is a repost of the same question on StackOverflow here.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

I don't use XLW myself but maybe Quantlib is a bit more friendly?

QuantLibXL: QuantLibXL

www.quantlib.org