How to construct Where Expression dynamically in Entity Framework? - entity-framework

Question

I've taken a look at this answer on how to dynamically create an OrderBy expression in Entity Framework. But I'd like to also build a dynamic Where expression. Something along the lines of this:
public IEnumerable<InventoryItem> GetAll(string filterBy, object value)
{
var results = new List<InventoryItem>();
using (var db = new InventoryDb())
{
if (QueryHelper.PropertyExists<InventoryItem>(filterBy))
{
var query = db.rri_InventoryItems.WhereByProperty(filterBy, value);
foreach(var item in query.Where(expr))
{
results.Add(ConvertItem(item));
}
}
}
return results;
}
Passing in the property to filter by and a value as ab object. Queryable has two methods for Where that both take two parameters, so I am not even sure which is the proper one.
And it's at this point I get a little more lost. I'm not sure how to refactor the original OrderByProerty method to provide a WhereByProperty. I know what I have here is completely wrong. I'm not sure what to do with it.
Ideally, I'd want to extend this even more by providing a collection of objects that could be used to build a query with ands and or operators.

Answer 1

Queryable has two methods for Where that both take two parameters, so I am not even sure which is the proper one.
You need the one that receives Expression<Func<T, bool>> predicate.
Here is how you can build dynamically a predicate similar to (T item) => item.Property == value:
public static partial class QueryableExtensions
{
public static IQueryable<T> WhereEquals<T>(this IQueryable<T> source, string member, object value)
{
var item = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "item");
var memberValue = member.Split('.').Aggregate((Expression)item, Expression.PropertyOrField);
var memberType = memberValue.Type;
if (value != null && value.GetType() != memberType)
value = Convert.ChangeType(value, memberType);
var condition = Expression.Equal(memberValue, Expression.Constant(value, memberType));
var predicate = Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(condition, item);
return source.Where(predicate);
}
}
I've tried to write it in such a way so you can step over the code in order to understand what it does. The only line that might need some explanation is:
var memberValue = member.Split('.').Aggregate((Expression)item, Expression.PropertyOrField);
This is a simple way of handling nested properties like obj.Prop1.Prop2 etc. If you don't need such capability, you can simply use this instead:
var memberValue = Expression.PropertyOrField(item, member);

Answer 2

I didn't need nested properties (yet). I modified your code slightly and have this that is working:
public static IQueryable<T> WhereEquals<T>(
this IQueryable<T> source, string propertyName, object value)
{
if (typeof(T).GetProperty(propertyName, BindingFlags.IgnoreCase |
BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance) == null)
{
return null;
}
ParameterExpression parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "item");
Expression whereProperty = Expression.Property(parameter, propertyName);
Expression constant = Expression.Constant(value);
Expression condition = Expression.Equal(whereProperty, constant);
Expression<Func<T, bool>> lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(condition,parameter);
return source.Where(lambda);
}