Dynamic expression tree to filter on nested collection properties

Question

I\'m using Entity Framework and building queries using navigation properties dynamically.

For most of my use cases, the following works fine:

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Answer 1

With this it should be possible to build your queries:

public static Expression GetNavigationPropertyExpression(Expression parameter, int test, params string[] properties)
{
    Expression resultExpression = null;
    Expression childParameter, navigationPropertyPredicate;
    Type childType = null;

    if (properties.Count() > 1)
    {
        //build path
        parameter = Expression.Property(parameter, properties[0]);
        var isCollection = typeof(IEnumerable).IsAssignableFrom(parameter.Type);
        //if it´s a collection we later need to use the predicate in the methodexpressioncall
        if (isCollection)
        {
            childType = parameter.Type.GetGenericArguments()[0];
            childParameter = Expression.Parameter(childType, childType.Name);
        }
        else
        {
            childParameter = parameter;
        }
        //skip current property and get navigation property expression recursivly
        var innerProperties = properties.Skip(1).ToArray();
        navigationPropertyPredicate = GetNavigationPropertyExpression(childParameter, test, innerProperties);
        if (isCollection)
        {
            //build methodexpressioncall
            var anyMethod = typeof(Enumerable).GetMethods().Single(m => m.Name == "Any" && m.GetParameters().Length == 2);
            anyMethod = anyMethod.MakeGenericMethod(childType);
            navigationPropertyPredicate = Expression.Call(anyMethod, parameter, navigationPropertyPredicate);
            resultExpression = MakeLambda(parameter, navigationPropertyPredicate);
        }
        else
        {
            resultExpression = navigationPropertyPredicate;
        }
    }
    else
    {
        //Formerly from ACLAttribute
        var childProperty = parameter.Type.GetProperty(properties[0]);
        var left = Expression.Property(parameter, childProperty);
        var right = Expression.Constant(test, typeof(int));
        navigationPropertyPredicate = Expression.Equal(left, right);
        resultExpression = MakeLambda(parameter, navigationPropertyPredicate);
    }
    return resultExpression;
} 

private static Expression MakeLambda(Expression parameter, Expression predicate)
{
    var resultParameterVisitor = new ParameterVisitor();
    resultParameterVisitor.Visit(parameter);
    var resultParameter = resultParameterVisitor.Parameter;
    return Expression.Lambda(predicate, (ParameterExpression)resultParameter);
}

private class ParameterVisitor : ExpressionVisitor
{
    public Expression Parameter
    {
        get;
        private set;
    }
    protected override Expression VisitParameter(ParameterExpression node)
    {
        Parameter = node;
        return node;
    }
}

Call it like:

var parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(A), "A");
var expression = ExpressionBuilder.GetNavigationPropertyExpression(parameter, 8,"CollectionOfB", "CollectionOfC", "ID");