I am trying to make c# sql query builder.
So I have built some method which can be used as following.
Query.Select("Order.OrderId").From("Order")
I already have classes (models) generated from entity framework.
So is there a way, I can use their class name or/and their properties to be passed here as argument and get their name as string?
e.g. (notice no double quotes)
Query.Select(Order.OrderId).From(Order)
so far what I am using for time being is below.
Query.Select($"{nameof(Order)}.{nameof(OrderId)}").From(nameof(Order))
which as you can see is too ugly and destroys entire purpose of making sql query readable.
Reason I am not using EF queries is it gets too complex for complex queries.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-relational_impedance_mismatch
An example to use the class name or/and their properties to be passed as argument and get their name as string.
private static string abc<T>(string propertyName)
{
if(String.IsNullOrEmpty(propertyName))
{
return typeof(T).Name;
}
else
{
PropertyInfo columnProperty = typeof(T).GetProperty(propertyName);
return typeof(T).Name + "." + columnProperty.Name;
}
}
//An usage
Query.Select(abc<Order>("OrderId")).From(abc<Order>(""));
Related
Story
I'm trying to write a generic method which combines property names, types and content value to generate a unique string for the value held by the object passed.
The idea is to generate a unique SHA3-512 Hash based on the generated string sequence which can be used to compare objects on generic bases by looking at their content.
Example
Let's say we have a class like this ...
class MyClass {
private Int32 Id = 5;
public String Name = "some string";
protected DateTime CreateDate = DateTime.Parse("2017-08-21 15:00:07");
}
... and the mentioned method to generate the unique string
static String GetContentString<T>(T obj) where T : class {
...
}
In theory this should work somewhat like this:
var myObj = new MyClass();
var uniqueContentString = GetContentString(myObj);
Console.WriteLine(uniqueContentString);
>>> Id:Int32:5$Name:String:some string$CreateDate:DateTime:2017-08-21 15:00:07
Problem
I'm having difficulties building the GetContentString Method. This is what I have already:
Object obj = ... // given object
Type type = obj.GetType();
IList<PropertyInfo> propertyInfos = type.GetProperties().Where(x => x.CanRead).ToList(); // Marker #2
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (PropertyInfo pi in propertyInfos)
{
sb.Append(pi.Name);
sb.Append(":");
sb.Append(pi.PropertyType.Name);
sb.Append(":");
sb.Append(pi.GetValue(obj) ?? "[ISNULL]"); // Marker #1
sb.Append(":");
}
return sb.ToString();
I tried running the method for a few different types of values like "some string" or 1234 (Int32) and ran into a few issues.
Given a string, the method call throws an exception of type System.Reflection.TargetParameterCountException and the message Parameter count mismatch at #1. I found out that an optional index can be passed to an overloaded version of pi.GetValue(..) which then returns one of the single letters. But how do you know when to stop? If you call an index which doesn't exist it throwns an exception of the type System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException. How do you get the value of a string object using reflection?
Given an integer value, the method call doesn't find any properties at #2. Which brings up the question of how to get the value of an integer object using reflection?
And also some general questions; do you guys think this is a good approach to get a unique string? Is reflection the way to go here? Is it even possible to write a generic solution to this problem?
Without looking at reflection, how about JSON serialization with something that .net framework is able to ?
Reflection isn't something extremely fast and you'll run into issues at the first unhandled exception.
Then, you should do that recursivly if your objects can contains complex properties, wich is not a problem with json serialization !
I'm generating code in a visual studio extension using CodeDom and plain code strings. My extension reads a current classes declared fields and properties using reflection and generates contructors, initializers, implements certain interfaces, etc.
The generator class is simple:
public class CodeGenerator < T >
{
public string GetCode ()
{
string code = "";
T type = typeof(T);
List < PropertyInfo > properties = t.GetProperties();
foreach (PropertyInfo property in properties)
code += "this." + property.Name + " = default(" + property.PropertyType.Name + ")";
}
}
I'm stuck at field and property initializers in two ways.
Firstly, although default(AnyNonGenericValueOrReferenceType) seems to work in most cases, I'm uncomfortable with using it in generated code.
Secondly, it does not work for generic types since I can't find a way to get the underlying type of the generic type. So if a property is List < int >, property.PropertyType.Name returns List`1. There are two problems here. First, I need to get the proper name for the generic type without using string manipulation. Second, I need to access the underlying type. The full property type name returns something like:
System.Collections.Generic.List`1[[System.Int32, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]]
Before I try to answer, I feel compelled to point out that what you're doing seems redundant. Assuming that you are putting this code into a constructor, generating something like:
public class Foo
{
private int a;
private bool b;
private SomeType c;
public Foo()
{
this.a = default(int);
this.b = default(bool);
this.c = default(SomeType);
}
}
is unnecessary. That already happens automatically when a class is constructed. (In fact, some quick testing shows that these assignments aren't even optimized away if they're done explicitly in the constructor, though I suppose the JITter could take care of that.)
Second, the default keyword was designed in large part to do exactly what you're doing: to provide a way to assign the "default" value to a variable whose type is unknown at compile time. It was introduced for use by generic code, I assume, but auto-generated code is certainly correct in using it as well.
Keep in mind that the default value of a reference type is null, so
this.list = default(List<int>);
does not construct a new List<int>, it just sets this.list to null. What I suspect you want to do, instead, is to use the Type.IsValueType property to leave value types at their default values, and initialize reference types using new.
Lastly, I think what you're looking for here is the IsGenericType property of the Type class and the corresponding GetGenericArguments() method:
foreach (PropertyInfo property in properties)
{
if (property.Type.IsGenericType)
{
var subtypes = property.Type.GetGenericArguments();
// construct full type name from type and subtypes.
}
else
{
code += "this." + property.Name + " = default(" + property.PropertyType.Name + ")";
}
}
EDIT:
As far as constructing something useful for a reference type, a common technique I've seen used by generated code is to require a parameterless constructor for any class that you expect to use. It's easy enough to see if a class has a parameterless constructor, by calling Type.GetConstructor(), passing in an empty Type[] (e.g. Type.EmptyTypes), and see if it returns a ConstructorInfo or null. Once that has been established, simply replacing default(typename) with new typename() should achieve what you need.
More generally you can supply any array of types to that method to see if there's a matching constructor, or call GetConstructors() to get them all. Things to look out for here are the IsPublic, IsStatic, and IsGenericMethod fields of the ConstructorInfo, to find one you can actually call from wherever this code is being generated.
The problem you are trying to solve, though, is going to become arbitrarily complex unless you can place some constraints on it. One option would be to find an arbitrary constructor and build a call that looks like this:
var line = "this." + fieldName + " = new(";
foreach ( var param in constructor.GetParameters() )
{
line += "default(" + param.ParameterType.Name + "),";
}
line = line.TrimEnd(',') + ");"
(Note this is for illustrative purposes only, I'd probably use CodeDOM here, or at least a StringBuilder :)
But of course, now you have the problem of determining the appropriate type name for each parameter, which themselves could be generics. And the reference type parameters would all be initialized to null. And there's no way of knowing which of the arbitrarily many constructors you can pick from actually produces a usable object (some of them may do bad things, like assume you're going to set properties or call methods immediately after you construct an instance.)
How you go about solving those issues is not a technical one: you can recursively apply this same logic to each parameter as far down as you're willing to go. It's a matter of deciding, for your use case, how complex you need to be and what kind of limits you're willing to place on the users.
If you are sure you want to use strings, you will have to write your own method to format those type names. Something like:
static string FormatType(Type t)
{
string result = t.Name;
if (t.IsGenericType)
{
result = string.Format("{0}<{1}>",
result.Split('`')[0],
string.Join(",", t.GetGenericArguments().Select(FormatType)));
}
return result;
}
This code assumes you have all necessary usings in your file.
But I think it's much better to actually use CodeDOM's object model. This way, you don't have to worry about usings, formatting types or typos:
var statement =
new CodeAssignStatement(
new CodePropertyReferenceExpression(new CodeThisReferenceExpression(), property.Name),
new CodeDefaultValueExpression(new CodeTypeReference(property.PropertyType)));
And if you really don't want to use default(T), you can find out whether the type is a reference or value type. If it's a reference type, use null. If it's value type, the default constructor has to exist, and so you can call that.
I would like to replace "PKMvrMedsProductIssuesId" for something like x=>x.PKMvrMedsProductIssueId or anything that is not based on a string. Why? Because if the database people choose to rename the field my program would crash.
public static SelectList MvrMedsProductErrors(this SelectList Object)
{
MedicalVarianceEntities LinqEntitiesCtx = new MedicalVarianceEntities();
var ProductErrorsListBoxRaw =
(
from x in LinqEntitiesCtx.ViewLookUpProductIssuesErrorsNames
select x
);
Object = new SelectList(ProductErrorsListBoxRaw, "PKMvrMedsProductIssuesId", "MvrMedsProductIssuesErrorsNames");
return Object;
}
You're using a SelectList. In order to call that constructor, you must have a string. Any change we could propose will still result in a string (from somewhere) being passed into that constructor.
The good news is: that string can come from anywhere. It can come from config, from the database... where ever you like.
I don't know the exact context here (what exactly "PKMvrMedsProductIssuesId" is) , but you can for example use such helper method:
public static string GetPropertyAsString<T>(Expression<Func<T, object>> expression)
{
return GetPropertyInfo(expression).Name;
}
To use an expression to get string:
GetPropertyAsString<MyType>(x => x.MyTypeProperty);
('MyTypeProperty' is your 'PKMvrMedsProductIssuesId' any 'MyType' one of your types where you may have your property defined)
Consider the following example LINQ to entity query
from history in entities.foreignuserhistory
select new { history.displayname, login=history.username, history.foreignuserid }
ToTraceString() return string looks like:
SELECT "Extent1"."foreignuserid" AS "foreignuserid",
"Extent1"."displayname" AS "displayname",
"Extent1"."username" AS "username"
FROM "integration"."foreignuserhistory" AS "Extent1"
The problem for me is that columns come in different order from query and do not take aliases like login in the example. Where does Entity Framework store mapping information for anonymous types?
Background: I'm going to develop insert with select operation using LINQ to entity for mass operations.
Update:
Insert with select is not that hard except for an unknown column to property mapping algorithm. One can get table and column names for destination ObjectSet using metadata, build INSERT INTO tableName (column_name1, …) sql statement string and then append some ObjectQuery.ToTraceString SELECT statement. Then create a DbCommand with resulting text using ((EntityConnection)ObjectContext.Connection).StoreConnection and fill command’s parameters from ObjectQuery. So the problem is to find matching column order in inserted and selected records.
Here’s my solution all the way down of privates and internals. It travels with reflection into cached query plan which will exist after ToTraceString call or query execution to get what is called _columnMap. Column map contains ScalarColumnMap objects going in the order of anonymous object’s properties and pointing to the corresponding column position with ColumnPos property.
using System;
using System.Data.Objects;
using System.Reflection;
static class EFQueryUtils
{
public static int[] GetPropertyPositions(ObjectQuery query)
{
// get private ObjectQueryState ObjectQuery._state;
// of actual type internal class
// System.Data.Objects.ELinq.ELinqQueryState
object queryState = GetProperty(query, "QueryState");
AssertNonNullAndOfType(queryState, "System.Data.Objects.ELinq.ELinqQueryState");
// get protected ObjectQueryExecutionPlan ObjectQueryState._cachedPlan;
// of actual type internal sealed class
// System.Data.Objects.Internal.ObjectQueryExecutionPlan
object plan = GetField(queryState, "_cachedPlan");
AssertNonNullAndOfType(plan, "System.Data.Objects.Internal.ObjectQueryExecutionPlan");
// get internal readonly DbCommandDefinition ObjectQueryExecutionPlan.CommandDefinition;
// of actual type internal sealed class
// System.Data.EntityClient.EntityCommandDefinition
object commandDefinition = GetField(plan, "CommandDefinition");
AssertNonNullAndOfType(commandDefinition, "System.Data.EntityClient.EntityCommandDefinition");
// get private readonly IColumnMapGenerator EntityCommandDefinition._columnMapGenerator;
// of actual type private sealed class
// System.Data.EntityClient.EntityCommandDefinition.ConstantColumnMapGenerator
object columnMapGenerator = GetField(commandDefinition, "_columnMapGenerator");
AssertNonNullAndOfType(columnMapGenerator, "System.Data.EntityClient.EntityCommandDefinition+ConstantColumnMapGenerator");
// get private readonly ColumnMap ConstantColumnMapGenerator._columnMap;
// of actual type internal class
// System.Data.Query.InternalTrees.SimpleCollectionColumnMap
object columnMap = GetField(columnMapGenerator, "_columnMap");
AssertNonNullAndOfType(columnMap, "System.Data.Query.InternalTrees.SimpleCollectionColumnMap");
// get internal ColumnMap CollectionColumnMap.Element;
// of actual type internal class
// System.Data.Query.InternalTrees.RecordColumnMap
object columnMapElement = GetProperty(columnMap, "Element");
AssertNonNullAndOfType(columnMapElement, "System.Data.Query.InternalTrees.RecordColumnMap");
// get internal ColumnMap[] StructuredColumnMap.Properties;
// array of internal abstract class
// System.Data.Query.InternalTrees.ColumnMap
Array columnMapProperties = GetProperty(columnMapElement, "Properties") as Array;
AssertNonNullAndOfType(columnMapProperties, "System.Data.Query.InternalTrees.ColumnMap[]");
int n = columnMapProperties.Length;
int[] propertyPositions = new int[n];
for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i)
{
// get value at index i in array
// of actual type internal class
// System.Data.Query.InternalTrees.ScalarColumnMap
object column = columnMapProperties.GetValue(i);
AssertNonNullAndOfType(column, "System.Data.Query.InternalTrees.ScalarColumnMap");
//string colName = (string)GetProp(column, "Name");
// can be used for more advanced bingings
// get internal int ScalarColumnMap.ColumnPos;
object columnPositionOfAProperty = GetProperty(column, "ColumnPos");
AssertNonNullAndOfType(columnPositionOfAProperty, "System.Int32");
propertyPositions[i] = (int)columnPositionOfAProperty;
}
return propertyPositions;
}
static object GetProperty(object obj, string propName)
{
PropertyInfo prop = obj.GetType().GetProperty(propName, BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
if (prop == null) throw EFChangedException();
return prop.GetValue(obj, new object[0]);
}
static object GetField(object obj, string fieldName)
{
FieldInfo field = obj.GetType().GetField(fieldName, BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
if (field == null) throw EFChangedException();
return field.GetValue(obj);
}
static void AssertNonNullAndOfType(object obj, string fullName)
{
if (obj == null) throw EFChangedException();
string typeFullName = obj.GetType().FullName;
if (typeFullName != fullName) throw EFChangedException();
}
static InvalidOperationException EFChangedException()
{
return new InvalidOperationException("Entity Framework internals has changed, please review and fix reflection code");
}
}
I think some assertions can be relaxed to check not the exact type but base type containing necessary property.
Is there a solution without reflection?
How the columns are aliased in the query shouldn't matter, and neither should their order. Entity Framework handles populating a new instance of your anonymous type with each result, and that's where you get the alias like login.
As a side note, I think Entity Framework may not work quite how you think. You can't do a select/insert in a single operation like you can using a normal SQL query. Entity Framework will execute your select, return back the results, use those results to create new instances of your entities (or in your case, an anonymous type), and you would then have to use each result to create a new instance of your target type, adding each one to your entity/object context, and finally call save changes on your entity/object context. This will cause an individual insert statement to be executed for each new entity that you've added.
If you want to do it all in a single operation without instantiating a new entity for every record, you'll need to either use a stored procedure that you map in your context, or else execute an in-line SQL query using ObjectContext.ExecuteStoreCommand
UPDATE: Based on your responses, what you're really getting into is closer to meta-programming that relies on your entity model more so than actually using entity framework. I don't know what version of EF you're using (EF 4.0? 4.1 w/ code first and DbContext?), but I've had a lot of success using the C# POCO template with EF 4.0 (the POCO template is a download from the online visual studio gallery). It uses a T4 template to generate POCO classes from the .edmx data model. In your T4 template, you could add methods to your context that would essentially call ExecuteStoreCommand, but the difference would be you can generate the query that gets executed based on your data model. That way any time your data model changes, your query would stay in sync with the changes.
Updated the reflection on this for EF 4.4 (5-RC)
full post at http://imaginarydevelopment.blogspot.com/2012/06/compose-complex-inserts-from-select.html
using this functionality/logic for doing a bulk insert from a select with some parameters provided
int Insert<T>(IQueryable query,IQueryable<T> targetSet)
{
var oQuery=(ObjectQuery)this.QueryProvider.CreateQuery(query.Expression);
var sql=oQuery.ToTraceString();
var propertyPositions = GetPropertyPositions(oQuery);
var targetSql=((ObjectQuery)targetSet).ToTraceString();
var queryParams=oQuery.Parameters.ToArray();
System.Diagnostics.Debug.Assert(targetSql.StartsWith("SELECT"));
var queryProperties=query.ElementType.GetProperties();
var selectParams=sql.Substring(0,sql.IndexOf("FROM "));
var selectAliases=Regex.Matches(selectParams,#"\sAS \[([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\]").Cast<Match>().Select(m=>m.Groups[1].Value).ToArray();
var from=targetSql.Substring(targetSql.LastIndexOf("FROM [")+("FROM [".Length-1));
var fromAlias=from.Substring(from.LastIndexOf("AS ")+"AS ".Length);
var target=targetSql.Substring(0,targetSql.LastIndexOf("FROM ["));
target=target.Replace("SELECT","INSERT INTO "+from+" (")+")";
target=target.Replace(fromAlias+".",string.Empty);
target=Regex.Replace(target,#"\sAS \[[a-zA-z0-9]+\]",string.Empty);
var insertParams=target.Substring(target.IndexOf('('));
target = target.Substring(0, target.IndexOf('('));
var names=Regex.Matches(insertParams,#"\[([a-zA-Z0-9]+)\]");
var remaining=names.Cast<Match>().Select(m=>m.Groups[1].Value).Where(m=>queryProperties.Select(qp=>qp.Name).Contains(m)).ToArray(); //scrape out items that the anonymous select doesn't include a name/value for
//selectAliases[propertyPositions[10]]
//remaining[10]
var insertParamsOrdered = remaining.Select((s, i) => new { Position = propertyPositions[i], s })
.OrderBy(o => o.Position).Select(x => x.s).ToArray();
var insertParamsDelimited = insertParamsOrdered.Aggregate((s1, s2) => s1 + "," + s2);
var commandText = target + "(" + insertParamsDelimited + ")" + sql;
var result=this.ExecuteStoreCommand(commandText,queryParams.Select(qp=>new System.Data.SqlClient.SqlParameter{ ParameterName=qp.Name, Value=qp.Value}).ToArray());
return result;
}
I'm trying to extend SqlMethods.Like method to support property name rather than property value, i wrote the following extension method :
public static bool Like(this object obj, string propertyName, string pattern)
{
var properties = obj.GetType().GetProperties().Select(p => p.Name);
if(!properties.Contains(propertyName))
throw new Exception(string.Format("Object does not contain property:{0}", propertyName));
return SqlMethods.Like(obj.GetType().GetProperty(propertyName).GetValue(obj, null).ToString(), pattern);
}
however the method throws the following exception :
Method 'Boolean Like(System.Object, System.String, System.String)' has no supported translation to SQL.
how can i write an extension method with transaction to SQL support ?
I found this answer from RichardD that is exactly the correct answer. Reposting for clarity, but original is linked below.
using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Linq.Expressions;
public static class Extensions
{
public static IQueryable<T> WhereLike<T>(this IQueryable<T> source, string propertyName, string pattern)
{
if (null == source) throw new ArgumentNullException("source");
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(propertyName)) throw new ArgumentNullException("propertyName");
var a = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "a");
var prop = Expression.Property(a, propertyName);
var body = Expression.Call(typeof(SqlMethods), "Like", null, prop, Expression.Constant(pattern));
var fn = Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(body, a);
return source.Where(fn);
}
}
...
.WhereLike("Description", "%a%b%c%"));
The solution uses expression trees, but all advanced LinqToSql operations will require familiarity with that.
From: http://forums.asp.net/p/1488418/3503874.aspx
What you want to do does not seem to make sense in the contxt of what SqlMethods.Like actually does. When you pass in a property of a class you are essentially telling it to translate that into the equivelent field in the SQL query. e.g.
var result = from names in db.Names
where SqlMethods.Like(names.FullName, '%Smith%')
select names;
would translate to something like:
SELECT *
FROM Names
WHERE Fullname LIKE '%Smith%'
(in practice it would be different using parameters and sp_executeSQL but coneptually that is what it would do).
If you want to pass in the name of a property what does that mean in terms of SQL, conceptually it makes no sense e.g.
SELECT *
FROM Names
WHERE --what would go here-- LIKE '%Smith%'
As such you are not going to be able to create a Linq To SQL method that creates nonsense SQL.
What are you actually trying to do, the chance is that you are going about it completely the wrong way.
Edit:hmm from your comment i think i understand what you want to do, in essense you want to be able to specify the column you are doing a LIKE comparison with at run time. You cannot do it exactly. You could use a stored procedure that used dynamic SQL and took a string parameter for the column. You could then expose this as a method on your data context class.