C# – How to dynamically create an Expression> predicate from Expression>

cexpression-treeslinqlinq-expressions

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

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

I have the following code:

Expression<Func<Service,string>> sel1 = s => s.Name;
Expression<Func<Service,string>> sel2 = s => s.Namespace;

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

Expression e1 = Expression.Equal(sel1.Body, val1);
Expression e2 = Expression.Equal(sel2.Body, val2);
var andExp = Expression.AndAlso(e1, e2);

ParameterExpression argParam = Expression.Parameter(typeof(string), "s");
var lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<string, bool>>(andExp, argParam);

This create the following output:

s => ((s.Name == "Modules") AndAlso (s.Namespace == "Namespace"))

However, this is faulty since the parameter for Name and Namespace isn't the same. If I change one of the expression selector to:

Expression<Func<Service,string>> sel2 = srv => srv.Namespace;

The output will be:

s => ((s.Name == "Modules") AndAlso (srv.Namespace == "Namespace"))

How can I create a valid expression with use of sel1 and sel2?

UPDATE (28 feb 2011)

I solved it by creating invoke expressions: Expression.Invoke so the lambda expressions sel1 and sel2 don't necessary need to be a MemberExpression:

Expression<Func<Service,string>> sel1 = s => s.Name;
Expression<Func<Service,string>> sel2 = srv => srv.Namespace;

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

Expression<Func<Service, bool>> lambda = m => true;
var modelParameter = lambda.Parameters.First();

// sel1 predicate
{
    var invokedExpr = Expression.Invoke(sel1, modelParameter);
    var binaryExpression = Expression.Equal(invokedExpr, val1);
    lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<Service, bool>>(Expression.AndAlso(binaryExpression, lambda.Body), lambda.Parameters);
}
// sel2 predicate
{
    var invokedExpr = Expression.Invoke(sel2, modelParameter);
    var binaryExpression = Expression.Equal(invokedExpr, val2);
    lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<Service, bool>>(Expression.AndAlso(binaryExpression, lambda.Body), lambda.Parameters);
}

Best Answer

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...

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