Convert IQueryable<> type object to List type?

Question

I have IQueryable<> object.

I want to Convert it into List<> with selected columns like new { ID = s.ID, Name = s.Name }<

Answer 1

Here's a couple of extension methods I've jury-rigged together to convert IQueryables and IEnumerables from one type to another (i.e. DTO). It's mainly used to convert from a larger type (i.e. the type of the row in the database that has unneeded fields) to a smaller one.

The positive sides of this approach are:

• it requires almost no code to use - a simple call to .Transform() is all you need
• it works just like .Select(s=>new{...}) i.e. when used with IQueryable it produces the optimal SQL code, excluding Type1 fields that DtoType doesn't have.

LinqHelper.cs:

public static IQueryable Transform(this IQueryable source)
{
    var resultType = typeof(TResult);
    var resultProperties = resultType.GetProperties().Where(p => p.CanWrite);

    ParameterExpression s = Expression.Parameter(source.ElementType, "s");

    var memberBindings =
        resultProperties.Select(p =>
            Expression.Bind(typeof(TResult).GetMember(p.Name)[0], Expression.Property(s, p.Name))).OfType();

    Expression memberInit = Expression.MemberInit(
        Expression.New(typeof(TResult)),
        memberBindings
        );

    var memberInitLambda = Expression.Lambda(memberInit, s);

    var typeArgs = new[]
        {
            source.ElementType, 
            memberInit.Type
        };

    var mc = Expression.Call(typeof(Queryable), "Select", typeArgs, source.Expression, memberInitLambda);

    var query = source.Provider.CreateQuery(mc);

    return query;
}

public static IEnumerable Transform(this IEnumerable source)
{
    return source.AsQueryable().Transform();
}