How do I create an OrderBy statement using a reflected value? - c#-4.0

Question

I would like to create a method that orders an IEnumerable List by a given property where the property is passed into the method by a string i.e. (Mind you the first code example does not work, but the second does and is what I am trying to emulate dynamically).
string sortName = "SerialNumber";
IEnumerable<PartSummary> partList = FunctionToCreateList();
partOrderedList = partList.OrderBy(what do I stick in here);
that would be equivalent to
IEnumerable<PartSummary> partList = FunctionToCreateList();
partOrderedList = partList.OrderBy(p => p.SerialNumber);
How can I accomplish this?

Answer 1

Are you saying you want to pass the order by in to your method? If so, you can use this:
Expression<Func<PartSummary, bool>> orderByClause
Then you can do this:
partOrderedList = partList.OrderBy(orderByClause);
Then you can handle your order by in your business layer or wherever you wish.
Okay, update: If you want to pass in the column name as a string you can do something like as follows:
Create a static class for an extension method (reference: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/linqprojectgeneral/thread/39028ad2-452e-409f-bc9e-d1b263e921f6/):
static class LinqExtensions
{
public static IQueryable<T> OrderBy<T>(this IQueryable<T> source, string sortingColumn, bool isAscending)
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(sortingColumn))
{
return source;
}
ParameterExpression parameter = Expression.Parameter(source.ElementType, String.Empty);
MemberExpression property = Expression.Property(parameter, sortingColumn);
LambdaExpression lambda = Expression.Lambda(property, parameter);
string methodName = isAscending ? "OrderBy" : "OrderByDescending";
Expression methodCallExpression = Expression.Call(typeof(Queryable), methodName,
new Type[] { source.ElementType, property.Type },
source.Expression, Expression.Quote(lambda));
return source.Provider.CreateQuery<T>(methodCallExpression);
}
}
Then you can create your method:
static IQueryable<PartSummary> FunctionToCreateList()
{
IList<PartSummary> list = new List<PartSummary>();
list.Add(new PartSummary
{
Id = 1,
SerialNumber = "A",
});
list.Add(new PartSummary
{
Id = 2,
SerialNumber = "B",
});
return list.AsQueryable();
}
And then call your method:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
IQueryable<PartSummary> partOrderedList = FunctionToCreateList();
PartSummary partSummary = new PartSummary();
string sortBy = "Id";
partOrderedList = partOrderedList.OrderBy(sortBy, false);
foreach (PartSummary summary in partOrderedList)
{
Console.WriteLine(summary.Id + ", " + summary.SerialNumber);
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
Now you can pass in the column name as a string and sort.
Hope this helps!

Answer 2

You can also avoid extending and just use a compiled expression tree to accomplish this:
public Func<T, object> ResolveToProperty<T>(String propertyName)
{
Type t = typeof(T);
var paramExpression = Expression.Parameter(t, "element");
var propertyExpression = Expression.Property(paramExpression, propertyName);
return Expression.Lambda<Func<T, object>>(propertyExpression, paramExpression).Compile();
}
string sortName = "SerialNumber";
IEnumerable<PartSummary> partList = FunctionToCreateList();
var partOrderedList = partList.OrderBy(ResolveToProperty<PartSummary>(sortName));