Considering this code:
public class Foo
{
public int a { get; set; }
public int b { get; set; }
}
private void Test()
{
List<Foo> foos = new List<Foo>();
foos.Add(new Foo());
foos.Add(new Foo());
Expression<Func<Foo, int>> exp0 = f => f.a * f.b;
Expression<Func<int>> exp1 = () => foos[0].a * foos[0].b;
Expression<Func<int>> exp2 = () => foos[1].a * foos[1].b;
}
How can you take exp0
and turn it into two expressions identical to exp1
and exp2
. Note that I don't want to just evaluate exp0
for each Foo
in foos
, but instead get two new expressions.
[Update]:
Basically, I want to be able to expand or "flatten" an expression passed to a Linq
extension method such as Sum
into one expression per item in the enumeration since these enumerations will be static, and because I already have code that reads expressions that don't take parameters (and then turns them into another language).
I'm using the MetadataToken
as a references to properties that have a certain attribute (in this case a
and b
would have this attribute) and using it with a dictionary that correlates C# properties to another language's variables:
Foo foo = new Foo();
Expression<Func<int>> exp = () => foo.a * foo.a + foo.b;
string result1 = GetResult(exp); // gets "v_001 * v_001 + v_002"
List<Foo> foes = new List<Foo>();
foes.Add(new Foo());
foes.Add(new Foo());
Expression<Func<int>> exp2 = () => foes.Sum(f => f.a * f.a + f.b);
string result2 = GetResult(exp2); // should get "(v_001 * v_001 + v_002) + (v_003 * v_003 + v_004)"
To summarize: If the purpose of the lambda expression is solely to pass a parameter to an instance method, then you may replace it with a method reference on the instance. If the pass-through is to a static method, then you may replace it with a method reference on the class.
If you are using a lambda expression as an anonymous function but not doing anything with the argument passed, you can replace lambda expression with method reference. In the first two cases, the method reference is equivalent to lambda expression that supplies the parameters of the method e.g. System.
No, there isn't. Lambda expressions are optimised (in terms of syntax) for the single parameter case. I know that the C# team feels your pain, and have tried to find an alternative. Whether there ever will be one or not is a different matter.
I would do it this way:
Write a parameter-replacer expression-visitor that manipulates the original expression as follows:
Here's a quick and dirty sample I whipped up based on my earlier answer on a different question:
public static class ParameterReplacer
{
// Produces an expression identical to 'expression'
// except with 'source' parameter replaced with 'target' expression.
public static Expression<TOutput> Replace<TInput, TOutput>
(Expression<TInput> expression,
ParameterExpression source,
Expression target)
{
return new ParameterReplacerVisitor<TOutput>(source, target)
.VisitAndConvert(expression);
}
private class ParameterReplacerVisitor<TOutput> : ExpressionVisitor
{
private ParameterExpression _source;
private Expression _target;
public ParameterReplacerVisitor
(ParameterExpression source, Expression target)
{
_source = source;
_target = target;
}
internal Expression<TOutput> VisitAndConvert<T>(Expression<T> root)
{
return (Expression<TOutput>)VisitLambda(root);
}
protected override Expression VisitLambda<T>(Expression<T> node)
{
// Leave all parameters alone except the one we want to replace.
var parameters = node.Parameters
.Where(p => p != _source);
return Expression.Lambda<TOutput>(Visit(node.Body), parameters);
}
protected override Expression VisitParameter(ParameterExpression node)
{
// Replace the source with the target, visit other params as usual.
return node == _source ? _target : base.VisitParameter(node);
}
}
}
Usage for your scenario (tested):
var zeroIndexIndexer = Expression.MakeIndex
(Expression.Constant(foos),
typeof(List<Foo>).GetProperty("Item"),
new[] { Expression.Constant(0) });
// .ToString() of the below looks like the following:
// () => (value(System.Collections.Generic.List`1[App.Foo]).Item[0].a
// * value(System.Collections.Generic.List`1[App.Foo]).Item[0].b)
var exp1Clone = ParameterReplacer.Replace<Func<Foo, int>, Func<int>>
(exp0, exp0.Parameters.Single(), zeroIndexIndexer);
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