Expression of type 'System.DateTime' cannot be used for return type 'System.Object'

Question

I\'ve created an expression that I\'m using for sorting which works fine, until I hit a DateTime field, where I get the following error (on the second line):

Answer 1

You appear to be expecting auto-boxing of value-types to match the return-type of the expression. Unfortunately, Expression.Lambda does not do this.

You can use Expression.Convert to perform the boxing.

var body = Expression.Convert(Expression.Property(param, sortKey), typeof(object));
var sortExpression = Expression.Lambda>(body, param);

If for some reason you don't want the conversion operation to be present in the expression if the property is already a reference-type, you can branch as required:

Expression body = Expression.Property(param, sortKey);

if(body.Type.IsValueType)
   body = Expression.Convert(body, typeof(object));