Creating an performant open delegate for an property setter or getter

Question

An open delegate is a delegate to an instance method without the target. To call it you supply the target as its first parameter. They are a clever way to optimize code that

Answer 1

I once made this class. Perhaps it helps:

public class GetterSetter<EntityType,propType>
{
    private readonly Func<EntityType, propType> getter;
    private readonly Action<EntityType, propType> setter;
    private readonly string propertyName;
    private readonly Expression<Func<EntityType, propType>> propertyNameExpression;

    public EntityType Entity { get; set; }

    public GetterSetter(EntityType entity, Expression<Func<EntityType, propType>> property_NameExpression)
    {
        Entity = entity;
        propertyName = GetPropertyName(property_NameExpression);
        propertyNameExpression = property_NameExpression;
        //Create Getter
        getter = propertyNameExpression.Compile();
        // Create Setter()
        MethodInfo method = typeof (EntityType).GetProperty(propertyName).GetSetMethod();
        setter = (Action<EntityType, propType>)
                 Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Action<EntityType, propType>), method);
    }


    public propType Value
    {
        get
        {
            return getter(Entity);
        }
        set
        {
            setter(Entity, value);
        }
    }

    protected string GetPropertyName(LambdaExpression _propertyNameExpression)
    {
        var lambda = _propertyNameExpression as LambdaExpression;
        MemberExpression memberExpression;
        if (lambda.Body is UnaryExpression)
        {
            var unaryExpression = lambda.Body as UnaryExpression;
            memberExpression = unaryExpression.Operand as MemberExpression;
        }
        else
        {
            memberExpression = lambda.Body as MemberExpression;
        }
        var propertyInfo = memberExpression.Member as PropertyInfo;
        return propertyInfo.Name;
    }

test:

var gs = new GetterSetter<OnOffElement,bool>(new OnOffElement(), item => item.IsOn);
        gs.Value = true;
        var result = gs.Value;

Answer 2

DynamicInvoke will not make a performant setter. Reflection against a generic inner type is your better option here, as this will allow you to use typed delegates. Another option is DynamicMethod, but then you need to worry about a few IL details.

You might want to look at HyperDescriptor, which wraps up the IL work into a PropertyDescriptor implementation. Another option is the Expression API (if you are using .NET 3.5 or above):

static Action<T, object> MakeSetterDelegate<T>(PropertyInfo property)
{
    MethodInfo setMethod = property.GetSetMethod();
    if (setMethod != null && setMethod.GetParameters().Length == 1)
    {
        var target = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T));
        var value = Expression.Parameter(typeof(object));
        var body = Expression.Call(target, setMethod,
            Expression.Convert(value, property.PropertyType));
        return Expression.Lambda<Action<T, object>>(body, target, value)
            .Compile();
    }
    else
    {
        return null;
    }
}

Or alternatively with a generic type:

    abstract class Setter<T>
    {
        public abstract void Set(T obj, object value);
    }
    class Setter<TTarget, TValue> : Setter<TTarget>
    {
        private readonly Action<TTarget, TValue> del;
        public Setter(MethodInfo method)
        {
            del = (Action<TTarget, TValue>)
                Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Action<TTarget, TValue>), method);
        }
        public override void Set(TTarget obj, object value)
        {
            del(obj, (TValue)value);
        }

    }
    static Action<T, object> MakeSetterDelegate<T>(PropertyInfo property)
    {
        MethodInfo setMethod = property.GetSetMethod();
        if (setMethod != null && setMethod.GetParameters().Length == 1)
        {
            Setter<T> untyped = (Setter<T>) Activator.CreateInstance(
                typeof(Setter<,>).MakeGenericType(typeof(T),
                property.PropertyType), setMethod);
            return untyped.Set;
        }
        else
        {
            return null;
        }
    }