Create Generic Expression from string property name - c#

I have a variable called sortColumn, which contains the text of a column that I want to sort a query result by. I also have a generic repository which takes as a parameter an Expression that contains the field I want to sort by. I can't seem to get from the string property name to an Expression.
So the generic repository that I have contains the following method
public IEnumerable<TEntity> Get<TOrderBy>(Expression<Func<TEntity, bool>> criteria,
Expression<Func<TEntity, TOrderBy>> orderBy, int pageIndex,
int pageSize,
bool isAssendingOrder = true,
EnumDeletePolicy deletePolicy = EnumDeletePolicy.ExcludeDeleted)
Notice the second parameter to this Get is Expression-Func-TEntity, TOrderBy. As I mentioned I have a variable called sortColumn, which contains the string for a property on my TEntity object I need to convert this string into an Expression that I can pass to the Get method.
Here is what I have right now.
var parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(IContract));
var memberExpression = Expression.Property(parameter, data.SortColumn);
var lambdaExpression = Expression.Lambda(memberExpression, parameter);
Which creates an object of type LambdaExpression. The actual type of this LambdaExpression is an Expression-Func-IContract, string (or whatever the type sortColumn of the property is). If I call the Get method and pass in this LambdaExpression and explicitly cast it to the Expression type then it will work fine. The problem is I don't know what the Expression type is, it could be a string, int, int?, etc. It all depends on the type of the property that is specific in the sortColumn property.
Can you help me make this last jump to the right Expression type?
Edit based on Marc's suggestions:
I nearly have this working, actually based specifically on the question it is working, but I have 1 remaining problem.
The IContract which is the Entity Type that I'm querying against actually inherits from IRelationship. If I specify a field from the IContract interface then the code above works. If I specify a field from the IRelationship interface then the following line fails.
var memberExpression = Expression.Property(parameter, data.SortColumn);
If I try something like below so that I'm grabbing the MemberExpression from the IRelationship, but building the Lambda based on IContract I get an error from the repository.
var parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(IRelationship));
var memberExpression = Expression.Property(parameter, data.SortColumn);
var orderBy = Expression.Lambda(memberExpression, Expression.Parameter(typeof(IContract)));
The error that I get is "The parameter '' was not bound in the specified LINQ to Entities query expression."
The final expression to get it working was this
var parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(IContract));
var memberExpression = Expression.Property(parameter, typeof(IRelationship), data.SortColumn);
var orderBy = Expression.Lambda(memberExpression, parameter);
So I needed to specify the middle parameter to the memberExpression line, to say look in the inherited Relationship interface for the property

You kinda need to use the correct generic overload - which used to mean you had to use MakeGenericMethod; however, you can also use dynamic to avoid the need to use MakeGenericMethod here, for example (in this case via Where, but the important point is how it works):
IQueryable<Foo> source = new[] { new Foo { Bar = 123 } }.AsQueryable();
Expression<Func<Foo,bool>> typed = x=>x.Bar == 123;
LambdaExpression untyped = typed;
IQueryable<Foo> filtered = Queryable.Where(source, (dynamic)untyped);
Note: you can't use extension methods here - hence why you need to use Queryable.*.
For an OrderBy example using your code:
var parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(Foo));
var memberExpression = Expression.Property(parameter, "Bar");
var lambdaExpression = Expression.Lambda(memberExpression, parameter);
LambdaExpression untyped = lambdaExpression;
IQueryable<Foo> sorted = Queryable.OrderBy(source, (dynamic)untyped);
var all = sorted.ToArray();
Re the edit:
var parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(IRelationship));
var memberExpression = Expression.Property(
Expression.Convert(parameter, typeof(IContract)), data.SortColumn);
var orderBy = Expression.Lambda(memberExpression, parameter);

Related

NHibernate UpdateBuilder.Set create lambda expression by propery info c#

I want to create generic lambda expression according to property info
var pInfo = typeof(User).GetProperty("Counter");
var parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(User), #"source");
var property = Expression.Property(parameter, pInfo);
var lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<User, object>>(property, parameter); // this line
//should be created according to the property type
//Expression.Lambda<Func<User, int>>
//Expression.Lambda<Func<User, string>>
//Expression.Lambda<Func<User, bool>>
//update fields in db nhibernate
updateBuilder.Set(lambda, Convert.ChangeType(pu.Value, pInfo.PropertyType, null));
Is there a way to create lambda expression when type is unknown without if syntax for each property?
Thank you
Well, I am not 100% sure what exactly you are trying to do, may be you should edit the question to explain in details.
But, following function will give you the generic lambda from property name as string. You can easily extract string name from property info. Hope this helps you.
public static Expression<Func<TEntity, object>> GetLambdaFromString<TEntity>(string property) where TEntity : BaseEntity
{
var x = System.Linq.Expressions.Expression.Parameter(typeof(TEntity), "x");
var body = System.Linq.Expressions.Expression.Convert
(
System.Linq.Expressions.Expression.Property(x, property), typeof(object)
);
var lambda = System.Linq.Expressions.Expression.Lambda<Func<TEntity, object>>(body, x);
return lambda;
}

Combine property selector expression tree and value to create a predicate for EF filtering - create filter from lambda selector and value

Given a simple class with arbitrary properties (for discussion lets say Id, Name, and Description)
and given an instance of that class, I want to find matching entries in the database by specifying the property to match
I'm trying to do something in this respect similar to the AddOrUpdate method of EF, but I need the entity returned to me for further processing.
var match = new SomeClass{Name="Whatever"};
var found = Context.SomeClass.Find(x=>x.Name, match);
public static T Find<T>(this DbSet<T> set, Expression<Func<T, object>> matchOn, T matchAgainst) where T : class {
var func = matchOn.Compile();
var valueToFind = func(matchAgainst);
var combinedExpression = //matchon + "=" + valueToFind;
var found = set.FirstOrDefault(combinedExpression);
return found;
}
That gives me the value of the property in the passed in object, but I need to now combine that value with the passed in expression and pass it to the db set.
IE, the code I'm effectively trying to run is set.FirstOrDefault(x=>x.Name==valueToFind) How do I take the matchon expression (which contains x=>x.Name) and combine that with the ==valueToFind to get the x=>x.Name==valueToFind from them?
How do I build the combined expression? (I realize the "string" code above is completely wrong, but I was trying to get across what I need the function to do, but I have no idea what that syntax would look like.)
For manually coded examples, it would be easy enough just to pass in a hardcoded lambda with the value set, but my use case involves running through a collection of objects and finding the match for each one, so the value will not be known until runtime, and the method must work against arbitrary types and various properties, so I can't hardcode the property name either.
If you have a property selector, and a value to compare to, you can get an expression tree like this:
public static Func<TEntity, bool> GetComparer<TEntity,TProperty>(
Expression<Func<TEntity,TProperty>> selector, TProperty value)
{
var propertyRef = selector.Body;
var parameter = selector.Parameters[0];
var constantRef = Expression.Constant(value);
var comparer
= Expression.Lambda<Func<TEntity, bool>>
(Expression.Equal(propertyRef, constantRef), parameter)
.Compile();
return comparer;
}
Sample usage:
var comparer = GetComparer<Person, string>(p => p.Name, "John");
var persons = Person.GetPersons();
var john = persons.FirstOrDefault(comparer);

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 to convert PropertyInfo to property expression and use it to invoke generic method?

How to convert PropertyInfo to property expression which can be used to invoke StructuralTypeConfiguration<TStructuralType>.Ignore<TProperty>(Expression<Func<TStructuralType, TProperty>> propertyExpression) method?
I tried to use Expression.Property() to construct expression but I am getting following error when I use this expression as propertyExpression parameter:
The type arguments for method cannot be inferred from the usage. Try specifying the type arguments explicitly.
This error probably refers to TProperty type parameter which I don't know how to specify having only PropertyInfo.
I am doing this in relation to: Use Entity Framework's StructuralTypeConfiguration.Ignore() to Ignore all properties but specified set.
UPDATE
Code which is not working:
var propertyInfo = typeof(Foo).GetProperties()[0];
var expression = Expression.Default(typeof(Foo));
var expressionProperty = Expression.Property(expression, propertyInfo);
Ignore(expressionProperty);
var entityType = propertyInfo.DeclaringType;
var parameter = Expression.Parameter(entityType, "entity");
var property = Expression.Property(parameter, propertyInfo);
var funcType = typeof(Func<,>).MakeGenericType(entityType, propertyInfo.PropertyType);
var lambda = Expression.Lambda(funcType, property, parameter);
structureConfiguration.GetType()
.GetMethod("Ignore")
.MakeGenericMethod(propertyInfo.PropertyType)
.Invoke(structureConfiguration, new[]{lambda});
Property expressions require the property access to be on a specific object. There's a few options you can take here. First, if this is being done within one of your entity objects, you can simple use a ConstantExpression to build the property expression:
// Already have PropertyInfo in propInfo
Expression.Property(Expression.Constant(this, this.GetType()), propInfo)
However, since you need a Expression<Func<TStructuralType, TProperty>>, then it seems like you're going to have to build it using a ParameterExpression:
ParameterExpression pe = Parameter.Expression(typeof(MyEntity), "eParam");
Expression propExp = Expression.Property(pe, propInfo);
HOWEVER, here's the kicker... This is just a MemberExpression. To convert to the expression you need, you need to use Expression.Lambda to get a Func<> expression of the type you need. The problem? You don't know the type of the property to define the generic parameters of the lambda expression!
Expression<Func<MyEntity, ????>> eFunc = Expression.Lambda<Func<MyEntity, ????>>(propExp, pe);
This is the crux of the problem of doing it this way. That's not to say it can't be done... It's just that using this method IN THIS WAY isn't going to work. You'll have to use a bit runtime and static typing trickery (as well as judicious use of Actions instead of Funcs) to get this to work correctly.
TProperty exists only in the c# source code text. The compiler always resolves it to a concrete type. If you have a method
void Test<T>(T arg)
{
}
and call it like this
Test("hello");
Test(3);
The compiler generates code for two methods!
void Test(string arg)
{
}
void Test(int arg)
{
}
This means that you have to supply concrete types for your generic parameters if you want to have an invokable method.
This code will get you an Expression<Func<>> of the desired type. Note that there is an Expression.Lambda(...) override that doesn't need you to specify the type of the Func returned.
var t = typeof(Foo);
var pi = t.GetProperty(...);
var prm = Expression.Parameter(t, t.Name);
var prx = Expression.Property(prm, pi);
var lambda = Expression.Lambda(prx, prm);
Note that in many cases you don't have to bother with creating the Expression<Func<>> this way, assuming structureConfiguration below is a StructureConfiguration<Foo>, type inference will allow you to write something like this:
structureConfiguration.Ignore(f => f.Bar);

How do I convert an Enum to an Int for use in an Expression.Equals operation?

I am trying to dynamically build an expression tree in C#, which is compiled and used as the predicate for LINQ-to-SQL Where() call. The problem is that I am trying to compare an Enum (with int as its underlying type) directly against an Int, but this is failing with the error "The member MyEnumType has no supported translation to SQL".
Code:
ParameterExpression param = Expression.Parameter(typeof(MyClass), "obj"); //input parameter - this exposes a property of the Enum type
MemberExpression enumMember = Expression.Property(param, "MyEnumProperty"); //used to get the Enum typed property from the parameter
//MISSING STEP TO CAST THE ENUM OF THE MEMBER EXPRESSION TO AN INT?
BinaryExpression binaryExpr = Expression.Equal(enumMember, Expression.Constant(1));
LambdaExpression<Func<MyClass, bool>> whereClause = Expression.Lambda(binaryExpr, param);
//when whereClause is used to filter LINQ-to-SQL results, the error is thrown
I'm fairly new to expression trees and I can't figure this out. I have tried using
Expression.Convert(enumMember, typeof(int))
as the first part of the BinaryExpression but this doesn't fix it.
Any help is much appreciated.
Simply, you shouldn't have to, as long as you've told LINQ-to-SQL about the enum (rather than mapping it as an int and having a separate property in C# that does the translation). For example, the following works fine:
var param = Expression.Parameter(typeof(DomainObject));
var body = Expression.Equal(Expression.Property(param, "SomeProperty"),
Expression.Constant(YourEnumType.SomeEnum));
var predicate = Expression.Lambda<Func<DomainObject, bool>>(body, param);
var count = db.Table.Where(predicate).Count();
The main point is that my SomeProperty property is mapped in the dbml to the enum. Simply overtype the type name with the enum type (including namespace).
Likewise, you shouldn't be giving it a 1, but rather the typed enum; for example:
Expression.Constant(Enum.ToObject(typeof(YourEnumType), 1))
(if all you know is 1)
Thanks To Marc Gravell. (Expression Guru !) See Correct answer.
I made a change to an Expression Routine to cater for this scenario.
Normal properties or Enums. Incase someone finds this helpful
public static Expression<Func<TPoco, bool>> GetEqualsPredicate<TPoco>(string propertyName,
object value)
Type fieldType )
{
var parameterExp = Expression.Parameter(typeof(TPoco), #"t"); //(tpoco t)
var propertyExp = Expression.Property(parameterExp, propertyName);// (tpoco t) => t.Propertyname
var someValue = fieldType.IsEnum // get and eXpressionConstant. Careful Enums must be reduced
? Expression.Constant(Enum.ToObject(fieldType, value)) // Marc Gravell fix
: Expression.Constant(value, fieldType);
var equalsExp = Expression.Equal(propertyExp, someValue); // yes this could 1 unreadble state if embedding someValue determination
return Expression.Lambda<Func<TPoco, bool>>(equalsExp, parameterExp);
}
look my friend first of all you have to modify your enum to be like that:
public enum myenum : int
{
item1 = 0,
item2 = 1
}
after that you can convert between int and that eunm by that way:
int x = (int) myenum.item1;
just you must convert enum to object
you can use this :
Expression.Constant(Enum.ToObject(enumMember.Type, enumMember .value))
Try
(int) enumMember

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