IronPython convert from Python String to SByte array

Question

for the usage of an external dll in IronPython I have to pass a string to a char array (char var[len]; in C++.NET). It seems to be expected to pass an SByte array.

If I try

myVarFromCLibrary = myPyString

I get

TypeError: expected Array[SByte], got str

There is very little information in the web. Up to now I found that I can apply something like this:

from System import Array
...
myCString = Array[System.SByte](myPyString)

myVarFromCLibrary = myCString

If I do so, I get an error like:

TypeError: expected SByte, got str

What is to do to get the right conversion.

Answer 1

Meanwhile I found a workaround but no solution:

def strToCharArray(theCharArray,theString):
  asBytes = bytes(theString,'ascii')  
  for i in xrange(len(theString)):
    theCharArray[i] = ord(asBytes[i])
  theCharArray[len(asBytes)] = 0

def charArrayToStr(theCharArray):  
  chars = []
  i     = 0
  while theCharArray[i]>0: 
    chars.append(chr(theCharArray[i]))
    i += 1
  return "".join(chars)

This keeps my program running but is not the real solution