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Utilizing Funcs within expressions?

Background
I have an example of a test that passes but an error that happens down the pipeline and I'm not sure why. I'd like to figure out what's going on but I'm new to Expression construction and don't want to make any assumptions.
This is for a search filtering mechanism. It uses ServiceStack's PredicateBuilder implementation. I essentially have a list of values that I pass in, and I want it to construct an expression tree. I had previously done this just with Func<T<bool>> but realized that I needed to wind up with Expression<Func<T<bool>>>. Bummer.
The Goal
Search filters built from Re-usable search filter types, which built out of Funcs and Expressions that allows me to pass in a field name from an object along with values I should match on and wind up with something that we can run a Where() statement against.
The Code / Issue
The generic "nullable bool" filter I'm trying -- sets up the acceptable items and returns a func that is meant to help filter:
public class NullableBoolFilter : IGenericSearchFilter<bool?>
{
public Func<bool?, bool> GetFilterFunc(string valuesToProcess)
{
var acceptableValues = new List<bool?>();
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(valuesToProcess))
{
// all values acceptable
acceptableValues = new List<bool?>{true, false, null};
}
else
{
if (!valuesToProcess.Contains("0") && !valuesToProcess.Contains("1"))
{
throw new ArgumentException("Invalid Nullable boolean filter attribute specified");
}
if (valuesToProcess.Contains("0"))
{
acceptableValues.Add(false);
}
if (valuesToProcess.Contains("1"))
{
acceptableValues.Add(true);
}
}
Func<bool?, bool> returnFunc = delegate(bool? item) { return acceptableValues.Any(x=>x == item); };
return returnFunc;
}
}
Then I have another filter, which inherits from the NullableBoolFilter and attempts to use the Func:
public class ClaimsReportIsMDLFilter : NullableBoolFilter, ISearchFilter<vSEARCH_ClaimsReport>
{
public Expression<Func<vSEARCH_ClaimsReport, bool>> GetExpression(string valuesToProcess)
{
var theFunc = base.GetFilterFunc(valuesToProcess);
Expression<Func<vSEARCH_ClaimsReport, bool>> mdlMatches = item => theFunc(item.IsMDL);
var predicate = PredicateBuilder.False<vSEARCH_ClaimsReport>();
predicate = predicate.Or(mdlMatches);
return predicate;
}
}
The following test passes:
public class ClaimsReportIsMDLFilterTests
{
// ReSharper disable InconsistentNaming
private readonly vSEARCH_ClaimsReport ItemWithMDL = new vSEARCH_ClaimsReport { IsMDL = true };
private readonly vSEARCH_ClaimsReport ItemWithoutMDL = new vSEARCH_ClaimsReport { IsMDL = false };
private readonly vSEARCH_ClaimsReport ItemWithNullMDL = new vSEARCH_ClaimsReport { IsMDL = null };
// ReSharper restore InconsistentNaming
[Fact]
public void WithSearchValueOf1_HidesNonMDLAndNull()
{
var sut = this.GetCompiledExpressionForValues("1");
sut.Invoke(ItemWithMDL).Should().BeTrue();
sut.Invoke(ItemWithoutMDL).Should().BeFalse();
sut.Invoke(ItemWithNullMDL).Should().BeFalse();
}
private Func<vSEARCH_ClaimsReport, bool> GetCompiledExpressionForValues(string searchValue)
{
return new ClaimsReportIsMDLFilter().GetExpression(searchValue).Compile();
}
}
The Problem
When I actually attempt to run this, I receive the error:
variable 'param' of type 'vSEARCH_ClaimsReport' referenced from scope '', but it is not defined
It makes sense to me why this might occur -- at the time it's evaluated, I don't have a real object to pass into the Func. However, I'm confused as to why my tests might pass but this doesn't in actual usage.
Questions
Why might my tests pass but I still receive this error?
How the heck should I begin trying to fix this?
Is there a remotely easy way to take that Func and turn it into an Expression that I can pass a field into?
Do I need to abandon the generic filter idea and have each class manually add expressions to the PredicateBuilder based on input passed in? That's doable, but it seems like the work could be reduced more.

Why might my tests pass [...]
Because your test is simply compiling the expression down into the code that it represents and invoking it. It doesn't need to actually parse the expression tree and look at what the code it represents is doing, it just runs it and ensures that the output is right.
Why might [...] I still receive this error?
Because when you're actually using it, it's not just executing the code; rather it is looking through the expression tree to try to determine what the code is doing so that it can be translated into something else, not so that it can be run as C# code.
Your expression is doing nothing but calling a delegate. There is no way for someone traversing the expression tree to see inside the delegate and know what it's doing. Knowing that you're calling another method isn't something that can be translated into another language.
How the heck should I begin trying to fix this?
You need to generate an Expression from the start, rather than generating a Func and then just creating an Expression that calls it.
Is there a remotely easy way to take that Func and turn it into an Expression that I can pass a field into?
No. You'd need to pull out the IL code of the function, decompile that into C# code, then build up Expression objects to represent that code. That's pretty much just not going to happen.
You're pretty much going to need to have GetFilterFunc return an Expression, to get this to work. Fortunately, this is quite easy to do, given what you have. You simply need to change the method signature and to replace the last two lines with the following:
return item => acceptableValues.Any(x => x == item);
And voila. The lambda can be compiled into an Expression object, rather than a delegate, based on context, so if the return type of the method is an Expression<Func<bool?,bool>> that's what you'll get.
Now, to use this in GetExpression. First off, the PredicateBuilder isn't really doing anything. Adding an OR FALSE to your expression changes nothing meaningful about it. All of that can go. All that leaves us with is using an Expression<Func<bool?,bool>> and changing it into an Expression<Func<vSEARCH_ClaimsReport, bool>> by pulling out a boolean property. To do this is a bit more work for expressions than for delegates. Rather than just invoking the expression, we need to do a tad more work to compose them. We'll want to write a method to do this operation:
public static Expression<Func<TFirstParam, TResult>>
Compose<TFirstParam, TIntermediate, TResult>(
this Expression<Func<TFirstParam, TIntermediate>> first,
Expression<Func<TIntermediate, TResult>> second)
{
var param = Expression.Parameter(typeof(TFirstParam), "param");
var newFirst = first.Body.Replace(first.Parameters[0], param);
var newSecond = second.Body.Replace(second.Parameters[0], newFirst);
return Expression.Lambda<Func<TFirstParam, TResult>>(newSecond, param);
}
And this relies on the use of the following method to replace all instances of one expression with another:
public static Expression Replace(this Expression expression,
Expression searchEx, Expression replaceEx)
{
return new ReplaceVisitor(searchEx, replaceEx).Visit(expression);
}
internal class ReplaceVisitor : ExpressionVisitor
{
private readonly Expression from, to;
public ReplaceVisitor(Expression from, Expression to)
{
this.from = from;
this.to = to;
}
public override Expression Visit(Expression node)
{
return node == from ? to : base.Visit(node);
}
}
What this is doing is replacing all instances of the second expression's parameter with the body of the first expression, effectively inlining that expression into the second. The rest is simply replacing all of the parameters with a new single parameter and wrapping it back up into a lambda.
Now that we have that, our method is quite easy:
public Expression<Func<vSEARCH_ClaimsReport, bool>> GetExpression(
string valuesToProcess)
{
Expression<Func<vSEARCH_ClaimsReport, bool?>> selector =
item => item.IsMDL;
return selector.Compose(base.GetFilterFunc(valuesToProcess));
}

Extension method in where clause in linq to Entities

In linq to Entities we needed a method that works like "sql like". We have implemented our own extension method to IQueryable, because contains method not work for us because doesn't accept patterns like '%a%b%'
The created code is:
private const char WildcardCharacter = '%';
public static IQueryable<TSource> WhereLike<TSource>(this IQueryable<TSource> _source, Expression<Func<TSource, string>> _valueSelector, string _textSearch)
{
if (_valueSelector == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("valueSelector");
}
return _source.Where(BuildLikeExpressionWithWildcards(_valueSelector, _textSearch));
}
private static Expression<Func<TSource, bool>> BuildLikeExpressionWithWildcards<TSource>(Expression<Func<TSource, string>> _valueSelector, string _textToSearch)
{
var method = GetPatIndexMethod();
var body = Expression.Call(method, Expression.Constant(WildcardCharacter + _textToSearch + WildcardCharacter), _valueSelector.Body);
var parameter = _valueSelector.Parameters.Single();
UnaryExpression expressionConvert = Expression.Convert(Expression.Constant(0), typeof(int?));
return Expression.Lambda<Func<TSource, bool>> (Expression.GreaterThan(body, expressionConvert), parameter);
}
private static MethodInfo GetPatIndexMethod()
{
var methodName = "PatIndex";
Type stringType = typeof(SqlFunctions);
return stringType.GetMethod(methodName);
}
This works correctly and the code is executed entirely in SqlServer, but now we would use this extension method inside where clause as:
myDBContext.MyObject.Where(o => o.Description.Like(patternToSearch) || o.Title.Like(patterToSerch));
The problem is that the methods used in the where clause have to return a bool result if is it used with operators like '||' , and I don't know how to make that the code I have created returns a bool and keep the code executed in sqlserver. I suppose that I have to convert the returned Expression by BuildLinqExpression method to bool, but I don't know how to do it
To sum up! First of all it's possible to create our own extensiond methods in Linq to Entities that execute the code in SqlServer? if this is possible how I have to do it?
Thanks for your help.

No, you cannot educate EF to process your custom extension methods, even though you have code that builds expressions that would be usable to EF.
Either:
use the SqlFunctions methods directly in your EF Where expression
use an ExpressionVisitor to combine multiple expressions into a composite (OrElse / AndAlso) expression (note this won't help you have code like you want, but it will let you use your two methods and perform a || on them - it will look complex, though)
The first is simpler and clearer.

Answered here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/10726256/84206
His code: http://pastebin.com/4fMjaCMV
Allows you to tag an extension method as [Expandable] and so long as the expression it returns works with linq2entities, it will replace your function call with the inner expression. Note that inline lambdas give errors, so I had to declare them as local variables or static variable such as the IsCurrent variable here:
static Expression<Func<PropertyHistory, bool>> IsCurrent = (p) => p.Starts <= DateTime.Now;
[ExpandableMethod]
public static IQueryable<PropertyHistory> AsOf(this IQueryable<PropertyHistory> source)
{
return source.Where(IsCurrent);
}

How to set parameter of method using reflection

The following code is a helper I've created for a system which allows administrators to create their own queries on a database. It returns a lambda expression based on the method and value provided.
I am attempting to find a way to pass parameters to the method call - in this example I am using the StartsWith parameter of String, and attempting to set StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase as a parameter.
There will be others parameters required too, depending on the type of the property specified. I'm hoping that understanding the method of supplying the string comparison property will enable me to add the rest later.
The underlying code works correctly, I just need it to be case-insensitive.
I have used this question as a guide, but the solution does not seem applicable here.
Here is the code:
public static class LambdaExpressionHelper<T> {
public static Expression<Func<T, bool>> Build(string propertyName, string method, string propertyValue) {
PropertyInfo propertyInfo = typeof(T).GetProperty(propertyName);
ParameterExpression e = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "e");
MemberExpression m = Expression.MakeMemberAccess(e, propertyInfo);
ConstantExpression c = Expression.Constant(propertyValue, m.Type);
MethodInfo mi = m.Type.GetMethod(method, new Type[] { m.Type }, );
// The below caused errors
//object classInstance = Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(T), null);
//object[] paramArray = new object[] { StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase };
//mi.Invoke(classInstance, paramArray);
Expression call = Expression.Call(m, mi, c);
Expression<Func<T, bool>> lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(call, e);
return lambda;
}
}
// External code:
var lambda = LambdaExpressionHelper<MailingListMember>.Build("EmailAddress", "StartsWith", "RoRy#");
Thanks for any help.

In the general case this should work:
public static Expression<Func<T, bool>>
Build(string propertyName, string method, params object[] args)
{
var propertyInfo = typeof(T).GetProperty(propertyName);
var e = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "e");
var m = Expression.MakeMemberAccess(e, propertyInfo);
var mi = m.Type.GetMethod(method, args.Select(a => a.GetType()).ToArray());
var c = args.Select(a => Expression.Constant(a, a.GetType())).ToArray();
Expression call = Expression.Call(m, mi, c);
Expression<Func<T, bool>> lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(call, e);
return lambda;
}
The idea is that you accept any number of constant arguments, and use their types to select the appropriate overload when calling GetMethod. After that, you create the appropriate number of constant expressions from those arguments to pass to Expression.Call.
So with the above code, you could do:
var l1 = LambdaExpressionHelper<MailingListMember>.Build(
"EmailAddress", "StartsWith", "RoRy#");
var l2 = LambdaExpressionHelper<MailingListMember>.Build(
"EmailAddress", "StartsWith", "RoRy#", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
If you also need to get the value StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase from the string "StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase", I would factor this out into a separate method so that the interface of Build can remain generic. Exactly how to do it is covered in Getting Enum value via reflection (and I guess in lots of similar questions as well).
Note: I don't have convenient access to a compiler right now, so please excuse any mistakes.

I'm not sure i understand your question exactly, but hopefully this will help you on the way.
If you are using .NET 4.0 you can use the new keyword "dynamic" for much easier reflection code:
dynamic myDynamicObj = "Hello World!"; // or Activator.CreateInstance...
var doesIndeed = myDynamicObj.StartsWith("Hello", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
This does evaluate at run time so make sure spelling/case etc is correct.
Edit:
Assuming you always wanted to call methods with one String-arg returning bool, a possible solution would be to create a delegate type -
delegate bool CompareString(String str);
and than have the second argument of Build as that type:
Build(String .., CompareString cs, String ...)
But this does not work if you need to add extra arguments, as in the second arg of type StringComparison. A if/switch could be the answer there though, i.e if(CompareString is StartsWith)...
Sorry, not at a windows-computer so i can't test further.

How would I add type specific implementations to linq binary expressions?

I have a fairly simple expression parser that uses the Linq.Expression namespace.
Input is something like: (1+1), it finds the left and right constants, and converts the operator char to an ExpressionTypes enum value, creates the appropriate expression, compiles and executes.
I'd really like to be able to do string manipulations, (abc+def) would evaluate to abcdef for instance, however:
System.InvalidOperationException: The binary operator Add is not defined for the types 'System.String' and 'System.String'
How would I go about implementing this myself?
Something like the equavlant to an ExpressionTypes.Concat would be ideal.

You have to create the MethodCallExpression yourself, which in this case is for the static method string.Concat. (This is what the compiler does itself when you compile such code)

Here's some code that demonstrates using MethodInfo to extend the definition of the binary expression Add to concatenation of strings.
One example uses the existing Concat method in the String type.
The second example uses a custom Concat method in the Program type (the class this is all embedded in):
private MethodInfo ConcatMethod = typeof(string).GetMethod("Concat", new Type[] { typeof(string), typeof(string) });
private MethodInfo ConcatMethod2 = typeof(Program).GetMethod("Concat", new Type[] { typeof(string), typeof(int) });
public static string Concat(string obj1, int obj2)
{
return string.Concat(obj1, obj2.ToString());
}
private Expression SomeCode(string leftStr, string rightStr)
{
Expression left = Expression.Constant(leftStr);
Expression right = Expression.Constant(rightStr);
return Expression.Add(left, right, ConcatMethod);
}
private Expression SomeCode(string leftStr, int rightInt)
{
Expression left = Expression.Constant(leftStr);
Expression right = Expression.Constant(rightInt);
return Expression.Add(left, right, ConcatMethod2);
}
static void CheesyTest2()
{
Program foo = new Program();
Expression exp = foo.SomeCode("abc", "def");
LambdaExpression lambdaExpression = Expression.Lambda(exp);
Delegate func = lambdaExpression.Compile();
object result = func.DynamicInvoke();
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Expression result: {0}", result));
exp = foo.SomeCode("abc", 42);
lambdaExpression = Expression.Lambda(exp);
func = lambdaExpression.Compile();
result = func.DynamicInvoke();
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Expression2 result: {0}", result));
}

For custom operators it's actually a method call so you need to find the corresponding method and create the expression tree for calling that method. Haven't work much with expression trees so im affraid I can't give you a code sample but I hope this Helps none the less

Dynamically get the result of a Func<T,bool> invocation

I am trying to serialize something based upon meeting particular criteria.
To this end my original hope was to use attributes containing a lambda expression on an object's properties.
However, as this cannot be done I've settled for having a Func<T,bool> member within the class and passing the type (or first parameter type) and name of this Func through the property attribute. E.g.:
Func<SomeObject, bool> func = (p => p.Value == 4);
[FuncAtt(typeof(SomeObject), "func")]
public SomeObject PropertyName { get; set;}
In my serializer I need to call this Func<T, bool>.
Let's assume I have a Type t which is equal to typeof(SomeObject) in this case, or more abstractly, typeof(T). I can also get the Func<T,bool> itself, but only through reflection as an object.
My naive approach is something along these lines:
object func = typeof(MyClass).GetField(attribute.FuncName).GetValue(MyClassInstance);
Type funcType = typeof(Func<,>).MakeGenericType(attribute.Type, typeof(bool));
ParameterExpression p = Expression.Parameter(attribute.Type, objectToSerialize);
LambdaExpression l = Expression.Lambda(funcType, func, p); /* Won't work */
But this leads to the problem of casting a lambda to a delegate which is apparently erroneous.
I tried this in place of 'func':
(Expression)((Action)(() => func))
But that relies on func being a method call not a lambda.
So, can anyone point me in the right direction?

You can just do something like this, without need for expressions:
public static class Test
{
public static Predicate<int> func = s => s > 20;
}
and to get the value:
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var a = typeof(Test).GetField("func");
bool validates = ((Predicate<int>)a.GetValue(null)).Invoke(100);
}
edit to get the value without knowing the type:
bool validates = (bool)((Delegate)a.GetValue(null)).DynamicInvoke(100);

I think you can use Compile method of a lambda expression to cast it to a delegate.
here's what I found on MSDN:
The Expression<(Of <(TDelegate>)>)
type provides the Compile method,
that compiles the code represented by
the expression tree into an executable
delegate. This executable code is
equivalent to the executable code that
would have been generated had the
lambda expression been assigned to a
delegate type originally.
Here you can find it.

Not sure this is working sample, but this is the way:
// not sure what are you doing in this line, but assume it should return
// a method name specified in the attribute, e.g. "func" in your example.
// Also "func" must be a method (static one in my example) of SomeObject class
String funcname = typeof(MyClass).GetField(attribute.FuncName).GetValue(MyClassInstance);
ParameterExpression param = Expression.Parameter(typeof(SomeObject), "p");
MethodCallExpression call = Expression.Call(SomeObject, funcname, new Type[] { typeof(SomeObject), typeof(Boolean) }, param);
LambdaExpression lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<SomeObject, Boolean>>(call, param);
now you can call the "func" method like this:
Boolean result = lambda.Compile()(SomeObjectInstance);