Integration of python in C# Application

Question

I have the following problem: I got an old application which is written in python. This application allows the user to specify small python steps which will be executed, python steps are basically small python scripts, I call them steps because the execution of this application involves other steps like executing something from commandline. These python steps are stored as python code in an xml file.

Now I want to rewrite the application by using C# .NET. Is there a best practise solution to do something like this?

I don't want to call python as external programm and pass the actual python step(script) to the python interpreter - I want something built in. I just came across IronPython and .NET python but I am not quite sure which one to use. I want to achieve some sort of debugging for the small scripts, that is why the call the interpreter solution is not acceptable.

What is more important is that a lot of those scripts already exist. Therefore I have to use a C# implementation of python which has the same syntax as python as well as the same built in libs of python. Is this even possible?

Thanks and Greetings Xeun

Metamer

Answer 1

IronPython is what you want. It compiles to .NET bytecode. You can reasonably easily call python code from another .NET language (and the other way around). IronPython is supported in Visual Studio too, I think.

Shoat

The main potential issue with IronPython is if these scripts use any C extensions - if they're just pure Python + stdlib they should be fine. – Trilemma

The scripts can use C extensions thats ture. Is there any issue with this? – Metamer

I am currently trying to figure out how to merge some numpy/matplotlib in a c# project, to simplify displaying some data. Ironpython seem to have fallen way behind, as those libraries do not appear to be available. – Oak

@Oak you can try pythonnet for C-API extensions and newer Python versions – Asmara

See my comment above - IronPython is sucks, can't work even in simple cases. – Lorola

Answer 2

Python scripts can be executed from C# with IronPython.

    var ipy = Python.CreateRuntime();
    dynamic test = ipy.UseFile("Test.py");
    test.Simple();

See also:

http://putridparrot.com/blog/hosting-ironpython-in-a-c-application/

and

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/charlie/2009/10/25/running-ironpython-scripts-from-a-c-4-0-program/

Viral

Uolot came with another solution btw, compile your python with p2exe and call that from .NET #1372494 – Viral

Sorry mate I down-voted your answer by mistake (a mouse twitch really) and didn't discover in 5 min and I'm unable to undo it now – Knock

no worries, the answer is not having a high-score anyway :) thx for letting me know! – Viral

second link is really useful. But if I'm building a winform/wpf desktop application, than do I need to install ironpython in all my client systems? I mean whoever will be using my application, do they need to install ironpython in their system as well? – Sello

Just installed and tried that "IronPython"... Hmm, it's definitely not an iron :( I immediately got an exception "not a Zip file" :( But there is NO any zip-file was involved, Python scrip from the command prompt is working as supposed to be. So, I afraid, "IronPython" isn't a "solution" at all - a way better to run original Python with the console redirection! – Lorola

Answer 3

You can use IronPython's ScriptScope.GetVariable to get the actual function and then you can call it like a C# function. Use it like this:

C# code:

var var1, var2 = ...
ScriptEngine engine = Python.CreateEngine();
ScriptScope scope = engine.CreateScope();
engine.ExecuteFile(@"C:\test.py", scope);
dynamic testFunction = scope.GetVariable("test_func");
var result = testFunction(var1,var2);

Python code:

def test_func(var1,var2):
    ...do something...

Took me a while to finally figure it out, and it's quite simple.. And IronPython is free and pretty easy to use. Hope this helps :)

Gnarly