Well, you can use Expression.AndAlso
/ OrElse
etc to combine logical expressions, but the problem is the parameters; are you working with the same ParameterExpression
in expr1 and expr2? If so, it is easier:
var body = Expression.AndAlso(expr1.Body, expr2.Body);
var lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<T,bool>>(body, expr1.Parameters[0]);
This also works well to negate a single operation:
static Expression<Func<T, bool>> Not<T>(
this Expression<Func<T, bool>> expr)
{
return Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(
Expression.Not(expr.Body), expr.Parameters[0]);
}
Otherwise, depending on the LINQ provider, you might be able to combine them with Invoke
:
// OrElse is very similar...
static Expression<Func<T, bool>> AndAlso<T>(
this Expression<Func<T, bool>> left,
Expression<Func<T, bool>> right)
{
var param = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "x");
var body = Expression.AndAlso(
Expression.Invoke(left, param),
Expression.Invoke(right, param)
);
var lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(body, param);
return lambda;
}
Somewhere, I have got some code that re-writes an expression-tree replacing nodes to remove the need for Invoke
, but it is quite lengthy (and I can't remember where I left it...)
Generalized version that picks the simplest route:
static Expression<Func<T, bool>> AndAlso<T>(
this Expression<Func<T, bool>> expr1,
Expression<Func<T, bool>> expr2)
{
// need to detect whether they use the same
// parameter instance; if not, they need fixing
ParameterExpression param = expr1.Parameters[0];
if (ReferenceEquals(param, expr2.Parameters[0]))
{
// simple version
return Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(
Expression.AndAlso(expr1.Body, expr2.Body), param);
}
// otherwise, keep expr1 "as is" and invoke expr2
return Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(
Expression.AndAlso(
expr1.Body,
Expression.Invoke(expr2, param)), param);
}
Starting from .NET 4.0, there is the ExpressionVisitor
class which allows you to build expressions that are EF safe.
public static Expression<Func<T, bool>> AndAlso<T>(
this Expression<Func<T, bool>> expr1,
Expression<Func<T, bool>> expr2)
{
var parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof (T));
var leftVisitor = new ReplaceExpressionVisitor(expr1.Parameters[0], parameter);
var left = leftVisitor.Visit(expr1.Body);
var rightVisitor = new ReplaceExpressionVisitor(expr2.Parameters[0], parameter);
var right = rightVisitor.Visit(expr2.Body);
return Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(
Expression.AndAlso(left, right), parameter);
}
private class ReplaceExpressionVisitor
: ExpressionVisitor
{
private readonly Expression _oldValue;
private readonly Expression _newValue;
public ReplaceExpressionVisitor(Expression oldValue, Expression newValue)
{
_oldValue = oldValue;
_newValue = newValue;
}
public override Expression Visit(Expression node)
{
if (node == _oldValue)
return _newValue;
return base.Visit(node);
}
}
Best Answer
AFAIK The BCL has very limited support for working with Expressions. I'm afraid that you're going to have to rewrite the expression yourself to change the method parameter type.
It's not hard, but not easy either. Basically, you will clone every node of the
Expression
(it's a tree) but set the root node's data type to yourFunc<TImplementation, bool>
.I would look for a different design that accomplishes the same goal but doesn't have this casting requirement - plowing through Expressions is not fun.
Update I've implemented a function that does what you want. I call it
CastParam
:All it does is rewrite the expression substituting the old ParamaterType with the new type. Here is my little test:
As expected, it prints:
The code relies on an
Expression
rewriter that I wrote (rewrites expression trees from the bottom up):The rewriter is obviously incomplete and you'll need to finish it off.