not able to load dll file in python (3.4)

Question

I have zero experience with c++ but reasonable experience with python. I am trying to load a dll library and proceeded as follows, according to instructions in another thread:

import ctypes my_dll = ctypes.WinDLL ("c:\\whatever\\whatever.dll")

the response I get is:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\Users\xxx\Anaconda3\lib\site- packages\IPython\core\interactiveshell.py", line 3035, in run_code exec(code_obj, self.user_global_ns, self.user_ns) File "<ipython-input-6-8b21ed13fe33>", line 1, in <module> mydll = cdll.LoadLibrary(dll_path) File "C:\Users\xxxx\Anaconda3\lib\ctypes\__init__.py", line 429, in LoadLibrary return self._dlltype(name) File "C:\Users\xxx\Anaconda3\lib\ctypes\__init__.py", line 351, in __init__ self._handle = _dlopen(self._name, mode) OSError: [WinError 193] %1 is not a valid Win32 application

The OS is 64-bit Windows 10. Could anyone point me to what is wrong?

Thanks.

Is the DLL also 64-bit? If it is, are you sure you're using the 64-bit version of Python? The DLL and the Python interpreter both have to be either 32 or 64 bit. — SwedishOwlSerpent
– SwedishOwlSerpent, Commented Dec 5, 2015 at 20:19

EmDroid · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-05 20:20:59Z

If the dll exists and is found, it might be that there is mismatch between 32-bit and 64-bit. For C++ app, the executable and the loaded dll must be the same architecture (either both 32-bit or both 64-bit), and the same applies for the Python executable. That means if you run 64-bit Python it might not be able to load a 32-bit dll and vice versa (there is actually a way to do it by creating helper 32-bit process and using IPC, but I'm not sure if Python does that).

I.e. check if both the dll and executable (Python) are the same architecture (bit size).

thanks a lot E! yes, that was the issue - there was indeed a mismatch between 32 and 64 bits.

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