Question

I’m basically trying to construct a query, and I don’t know why microsoft made this so difficult in Entity Framework and LINQ. I have various parameter STRINGS. So if you see a variable, assume it’s a string passed in from somewhere.

             users = this.entities.tableUsers
                .Where(searchfield+" LIKE %@0%", search)
                .OrderBy(x => x.GetType().GetProperty(order_by).GetValue(x, null).ToString())
                .Skip(Convert.ToInt32(limit_begin))
                .Take(Convert.ToInt32(limit_end))
                .ToList();

My question is what to put inside “Where()” function in LINQ.

I want to search a field with string “searchfield”, for the value .contains() “search”.

Not sure why Visual Studio won’t let me do this easily.

I’ve tried this as well, no luck:

.Where(x => x.GetType().GetProperty(searchfield).GetValue(x, null).ToList().Contains(search))

Note: I don’t want to install any new libraries, this should be incredibly easy and simple for a modern language. I don’t mind if the query returns all the rows and I search through it AFTER with .Contains().

Answer 1

This is not trivial, but I believe it can be done. The following has not been tested. The code is borrowed from here.

Create a helper method somewhere like

public static Expression<Func<T, bool>> GetContainsExpression<T>(string propertyName, string containsValue)
{
    var parameterExp = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "type");
    var propertyExp = Expression.Property(parameterExp, propertyName);
    MethodInfo method = typeof(string).GetMethod("Contains", new[] { typeof(string) });
    var someValue = Expression.Constant(propertyValue, typeof(string));
    var containsMethodExp = Expression.Call(propertyExp, method, someValue);

    return Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(containsMethodExp, parameterExp);
}

public static Expression<Func<T, TKey>> GetPropertyExpression<T, TKey>(string propertyName)
{
    var parameterExp = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "type");
    var exp = Expression.Property(parameterExp, propertyName);
    return Expression.Lambda<Func<T, TKey>>(exp, parameterExp);
}

Use it like

users = this.entities.tableUsers
                     .Where(GetContainsExpression<User>(searchfield, search))
                     .OrderBy(GetPropertyExpression<User, string>(searchfield))
                     ...

UPDATE

As an alternative, you could create extension methods to provide a cleaner syntax. Create the following methods in a static class somewhere:

    public static IQueryable<T> WhereStringContains<T>(this IQueryable<T> query, string propertyName, string contains)
    {
        var parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "type");
        var propertyExpression = Expression.Property(parameter, propertyName);
        MethodInfo method = typeof(string).GetMethod("Contains", new[] { typeof(string) });
        var someValue = Expression.Constant(contains, typeof(string));
        var containsExpression = Expression.Call(propertyExpression, method, someValue);

        return query.Where(Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(containsExpression, parameter));
    }

    public static IOrderedQueryable<T> OrderBy<T>(this IQueryable<T> query, string propertyName)
    {
        var propertyType = typeof(T).GetProperty(propertyName).PropertyType;
        var parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "type");
        var propertyExpression = Expression.Property(parameter, propertyName);
        var lambda = Expression.Lambda(propertyExpression, new[] { parameter });

        return typeof(Queryable).GetMethods()
                                .Where(m => m.Name == "OrderBy" && m.GetParameters().Length == 2)
                                .Single()
                                .MakeGenericMethod(new[] { typeof(T), propertyType })
                                .Invoke(null, new object[] { query, lambda }) as IOrderedQueryable<T>;
    }

    public static IOrderedQueryable<T> OrderByDescending<T>(this IQueryable<T> query, string propertyName)
    {
        var propertyType = typeof(T).GetProperty(propertyName).PropertyType;
        var parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "type");
        var propertyExpression = Expression.Property(parameter, propertyName);
        var lambda = Expression.Lambda(propertyExpression, new[] { parameter });

        return typeof(Queryable).GetMethods()
                                .Where(m => m.Name == "OrderByDescending" && m.GetParameters().Length == 2)
                                .Single()
                                .MakeGenericMethod(new[] { typeof(T), propertyType })
                                .Invoke(null, new object[] { query, lambda }) as IOrderedQueryable<T>;
    }

Then you can call them like:

var users = this.entities.tableUsers.WhereStringContains(searchField, search)
                                    .OrderBy(searchField);