Python and C with ctypes

Calling C code from Python is very simple using ctypes. Here is a very simple example to get you started and to serve as a reminder for me!

Let's say you have this C file, defining 3 functions:

• foo which prints something to stdout;
• bar which returns and int;
• baz which takes a parameter and returns a value.

First, you want to compile this C file into a shared object. Here is a Makefile to do just this: simple type make all and you're done.

Finally, you can call these C functions from Python using ctypes:

Obviously, there is much more to it and things get more complicated soon, but, as you can see, for simple tasks like this using ctypes is pretty straitforward.