Editing SWIG (section)

==Function==

[[File:Swig file interrelations.svg|400px|thumb|Files involved when Swig is used for binding C++ to Python.<ref>Adapted from Ammar Nejati, Mikhail Svechnikov, Joachim Wuttke: Deploying a C++ Software with (or
without) Python Embedding and Extension. In Bernoth et al, eds: deRSE24 - Selected Contributions of the 4th Conference for
Research Software Engineering in Germany. [https://eceasst.org/index.php/eceasst/article/view/2596 ECEASST 83 (2025)].</ref>]]

The aim is to allow the calling of native functions (that were written in C or C++) by other programming languages, passing complex data types to those functions, keeping memory from being inappropriately freed, inheriting object classes across languages, etc. The programmer writes an interface file containing a list of C/C++ functions to be made visible to an interpreter. SWIG will compile the interface file and generate code in regular C/C++ and the target programming language. SWIG will generate [[Marshalling (computer science)|conversion code]] for functions with simple arguments; conversion code for complex types of arguments must be written by the programmer. The SWIG tool creates [[source code]] that provides the glue between C/C++ and the target language.  Depending on the language, this glue comes in two forms:
*a [[library (computer science)#Shared libraries|shared library]] that an extant interpreter can link to as some form of extension module, or
*a shared library that can be linked to other programs compiled in the target language (for example, using [[Java Native Interface]] (JNI) in Java).
*a shared [[dynamic library]] source code that should be compiled and dynamically loaded (e.g. Node.js native extensions)

SWIG is not used for calling interpreted functions by native code; this must be done by the programmer manually.