How to implement search functionality in C#/ASP.NET MVC

Question

I am developing an ASP.NET MVC 3 application using C# and Razor.

I have a search form that looks like this:

Answer 1

You can build expression tree for where predicate using code. For example,

public static IQueryable DynamicWhere(this IQueryable src, string propertyName, string value)
{
    var pe = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "t");
    var left = Expression.Property(pe, typeof(T).GetProperty(propertyName));
    var right = Expression.Constant(value);
    // Illustrated a equality condition but you can put a switch based on some parameter
    // to have different operators
    var condition = Expression.Equal(left, right);

    var predicate = Expression.Lambda>(condition, pe);
    return src.Where(predicate);
}

Use it as Orders.DynamicWhere(searchBy, searchValue). You can add one more parameter to accept the operator such as Equals, Greater Than etc to complete the function.

See these links for more info:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb882637.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb397951.aspx

Also check list of methods on the Expression class to get an idea.