How do I dynamically create an Expression> predicate from Expression>?

Question

I trying to append where predicates and my goal is to create the same expression as:

Services.Where(s => s.Name == \"Modules\" && s.Namespace == \         


        

Answer 1

It's hard to mix compiler-generated expression trees and hand-made ones, precisely because of this sort of thing - extracting out the ParameterExpressions is tricky. So let's start from scratch:

ParameterExpression argParam = Expression.Parameter(typeof(Service), "s");
Expression nameProperty = Expression.Property(argParam, "Name");
Expression namespaceProperty = Expression.Property(argParam, "Namespace");

var val1 = Expression.Constant("Modules");
var val2 = Expression.Constant("Namespace");

Expression e1 = Expression.Equal(nameProperty, val1);
Expression e2 = Expression.Equal(namespaceProperty, val2);
var andExp = Expression.AndAlso(e1, e2);

var lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<Service, bool>>(andExp, argParam);

One important aspect I've changed is the type passed to Expression.Parameter - it certainly looks like it should be a Service rather than a string.

I've given that a try, and it seemed to work when I called lambda.Compile and executed it on a couple of sample Service objects...

Answer 2

You can create an Expression tree for nullable types, suppose you have a nullable field BoardId, you can create expression tree dynamically like this

var nameValue="BoardId=111";

you need to determine first Property type, whether its Nullable or not

Below code create a Dynamic tree expression for nullable and Non Nullable types

 public static Expression<Func<T, bool>> BuildWhereExpression<T>(string nameValueQuery ) where  T : class 
        {
            Expression<Func<T, bool>> predicate = null;
            PropertyInfo prop = null;
            var fieldName = nameValueQuery.Split("=")[0];
            var fieldValue = nameValueQuery.Split("=")[1];
            var properties = typeof(T).GetProperties();
            foreach (var property in properties)
            {
                if (property.Name.ToLower() == fieldName.ToLower())
                {
                    prop = property;
                }
            } 
            if (prop != null)
            {
                var isNullable = prop.PropertyType.IsNullableType();
                var parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "x");
                var member = Expression.Property(parameter, fieldName); 

                if (isNullable)
                {
                    var filter1 =
                        Expression.Constant(
                            Convert.ChangeType(fieldValue, member.Type.GetGenericArguments()[0]));
                    Expression typeFilter = Expression.Convert(filter1, member.Type);
                    var body = Expression.Equal(member, typeFilter);  
                    predicate = Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(body, parameter);  
                }
                else
                {
                    if (prop.PropertyType == typeof(string) && likeOerator.ToLower() == "like")
                    {
                        var parameterExp = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "type");
                        var propertyExp = Expression.Property(parameterExp, prop);
                        MethodInfo method = typeof(string).GetMethod("Contains", new[] { typeof(string) });
                        var someValue = Expression.Constant(fieldValue, typeof(string));
                        var containsMethodExp = Expression.Call(propertyExp, method, someValue);
                        predicate = Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(containsMethodExp, parameterExp);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        var constant = Expression.Constant(Convert.ChangeType(fieldValue, prop.PropertyType));
                        var body = Expression.Equal(member, constant);  
                        predicate = Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(body, parameter); `enter code here`
                    }
                }
            }
            return predicate;
        }

1- This Solution first checks for the Nullable value and generate the expression. This is How you can determine if the type is Nullable. I have created an extension method for that purpose

  public static bool IsNullableType(this Type type) {  return
    type.IsGenericType &&
    (type.GetGenericTypeDefinition().Equals(typeof(Nullable<>))); }

2- the second step is to check the type if its string then create an expression for a string.

3- the Third step is to check is value is not nullable not string then create an expression using equal