List of Expression<Func<T, TProperty>>
This is one of the few cases where a dynamic
/ reflection solution may be appropriate.
I think you want something like this? (I've read between the lines and made some changes to your structure where I thought necessary).
public class OrderClauseList<T>
{
private readonly List<LambdaExpression> _list = new List<LambdaExpression>();
public void AddOrderBy<TProperty>(Expression<Func<T, TProperty>> orderBySelector)
{
_list.Add(orderBySelector);
}
public IEnumerable<LambdaExpression> OrderByClauses
{
get { return _list; }
}
}
public class Repository<T>
{
private IQueryable<T> _source = ... // Don't know how this works
public IEnumerable<T> Query(OrderClause<T> clauseList)
{
// Needs validation, e.g. null-reference or empty clause-list.
var clauses = clauseList.OrderByClauses;
IOrderedQueryable<T> result = Queryable.OrderBy(_source,
(dynamic)clauses.First());
foreach (var clause in clauses.Skip(1))
{
result = Queryable.ThenBy(result, (dynamic)clause);
}
return result.ToList();
}
}
The key trick is getting C# dynamic
to do the horrible overload resolution and type-inference for us. What's more, I believe the above, despite the use of dynamic
, is actually type-safe!
One way to do this would be to “store” all the sort clauses in something like Func<IQueryable<T>, IOrderedQueryable<T>>
(that is, a function that calls the sorting methods):
public class OrderClause<T>
{
private Func<IQueryable<T>, IOrderedQueryable<T>> m_orderingFunction;
public void AddOrderBy<TProperty>(Expression<Func<T, TProperty>> orderBySelector)
{
if (m_orderingFunction == null)
{
m_orderingFunction = q => q.OrderBy(orderBySelector);
}
else
{
// required so that m_orderingFunction doesn't reference itself
var orderingFunction = m_orderingFunction;
m_orderingFunction = q => orderingFunction(q).ThenBy(orderBySelector);
}
}
public IQueryable<T> Order(IQueryable<T> source)
{
if (m_orderingFunction == null)
return source;
return m_orderingFunction(source);
}
}
This way, you don't have to deal with reflection or dynamic
, all this code is type safe and relatively easy to understand.
You can store your lambda expressions in a collection as instances of the LambdaExpression
type.
Or even better, store sort definitions, each of which, in addition to an expression, aslo stores a sorting direction.
Suppose you have the following extension method
public static IQueryable<T> OrderBy<T>(
this IQueryable<T> source,
SortDefinition sortDefinition) where T : class
{
MethodInfo method;
Type sortKeyType = sortDefinition.Expression.ReturnType;
if (sortDefinition.Direction == SortDirection.Ascending)
{
method = MethodHelper.OrderBy.MakeGenericMethod(
typeof(T),
sortKeyType);
}
else
{
method = MethodHelper.OrderByDescending.MakeGenericMethod(
typeof(T),
sortKeyType);
}
var result = (IQueryable<T>)method.Invoke(
null,
new object[] { source, sortDefinition.Expression });
return result;
}
and a similar method for ThenBy
. Then you can do something like
myQueryable = myQueryable.OrderBy(sortDefinitions.First());
myQueryable = sortDefinitions.Skip(1).Aggregate(
myQueryable,
(current, sortDefinition) => current.ThenBy(sortDefinition));
Here are the definitions of SortDefinition
and MethodHelper
public class SortDefinition
{
public SortDirection Direction
{
get;
set;
}
public LambdaExpression Expression
{
get;
set;
}
}
internal static class MethodHelper
{
static MethodHelper()
{
OrderBy = GetOrderByMethod();
ThenBy = GetThenByMethod();
OrderByDescending = GetOrderByDescendingMethod();
ThenByDescending = GetThenByDescendingMethod();
}
public static MethodInfo OrderBy
{
get;
private set;
}
public static MethodInfo ThenBy
{
get;
private set;
}
public static MethodInfo OrderByDescending
{
get;
private set;
}
public static MethodInfo ThenByDescending
{
get;
private set;
}
private static MethodInfo GetOrderByMethod()
{
Expression<Func<IQueryable<object>, IOrderedQueryable<object>>> expr =
q => q.OrderBy((Expression<Func<object, object>>)null);
return ((MethodCallExpression)expr.Body).Method.GetGenericMethodDefinition();
}
private static MethodInfo GetThenByMethod()
{
Expression<Func<IOrderedQueryable<object>, IOrderedQueryable<object>>> expr =
q => q.ThenBy((Expression<Func<object, object>>)null);
return ((MethodCallExpression)expr.Body).Method.GetGenericMethodDefinition();
}
private static MethodInfo GetOrderByDescendingMethod()
{
Expression<Func<IQueryable<object>, IOrderedQueryable<object>>> expr =
q => q.OrderByDescending((Expression<Func<object, object>>)null);
return ((MethodCallExpression)expr.Body).Method.GetGenericMethodDefinition();
}
private static MethodInfo GetThenByDescendingMethod()
{
Expression<Func<IOrderedQueryable<object>, IOrderedQueryable<object>>> expr =
q => q.ThenByDescending((Expression<Func<object, object>>)null);
return ((MethodCallExpression)expr.Body).Method.GetGenericMethodDefinition();
}
}