If I make any mistakes/mistypes in the following code, please don't get irrate, just drop a comment on here and I'll fix immediately - thanks
Goal
Re-map Expression<TDelegate>
from one EntityA
to a EntityB
.
I suspect this kind of thing has been done before but I haven't found any particularly useful links so feel free to point me in the right direction.
What I have so far is a selection of classes that combine to allow for mappings to be created between Entity Members on two given classes. As an example, the surface API might have the following signature:
public void AddMemberBinding<TEntityA, TEntityB, TMember>(Func<TEntityA, TMember> entityAMemberSelector, Func<TEntityB, TMember> entityBMemberSelector)
{
// does some magic, eventually storing the necessary MemberInfo details required to
// "remap" MemberExpressions (MemberAccess) from TEntityA to TEntityB
}
Given the following classes...
public class EntityA
{
public long Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set ;}
}
public class EntityB
{
public long MyId { get; set; }
public string MyName { get; set; }
}
You would be able to create bindings with something along the lines of...
public static void AddBindings()
{
AddMemberBinding((EntityA n) => n.Id, (EntityB n) => n.MyId);
AddMemberBinding((EntityA n) => n.Name, (EntityB n) => n.MyName);
}
In my case, I have Assembly1
that knows what EntityA
is, but does not know EntityB
. I have Assembly2
which knows what both EntityA
and EntityB
are, and is visible to Assembly1
. Assembly2
provides a method to Assembly1
which might look as follows:
public static IEnumerable<EntityA> GetData<TResult>(Expression<Func<EntityA, bool>> criteria, Expression<Func<EntityA, TResult>> selector)
{
// EntityB's are stored in a database, I could do one of two things here...
// 1) Return all EntitieB's and then apply criteria and selector through the IEnumerable extensions
// this would be sub-optimal - particularly if there are millions of EntityB's!
// 2) "Transmute" (for lack of a better word) the expressions provided, using the keymappings
// specified earlier, to derive expressions that can be passed through to the QueryableProvider
// ... as you might have guessed, I opted for #2
}
I'm using a derived version of the ExpressionTree Visitor, with the following overridden methods:
protected override Expression VisitLambda(LambdaExpression lambda)
{
Type targetParameterType = lambda.Parameters[0].Type;
Type targetExpressionType = lambda.Type;
If (lambda.Parameters.Count = 1 && lambda.Parameters(0).Type == EntityA)
{
targetParameterType = EntityB;
// the `GetResultType` method called gets the TResult type from Func<T, TResult>
Type targetExpressionResultType = GetResultType(lambda);
targetExpressionType = gettype(Func<EntityB, targetExpressionResultType>)
}
// this is probably wrong, but maintains the current (last) parameter instance
// I started doing this after reading about a similar issue to mine found:
// https://stackoverflow.com/questions/411738/expression-or-the-parameter-item-is-not-in-scope
this.CurrentLambdaParameters = lambda.Parameters.Select(x => Expression.Parameter(targetParameterType, x.Name));
Expression body = this.Visit(lambda.Body);
If (body != lambda.Body)
{
return Expression.Lambda(targetExpressionType, body, this.CurrentLambdaParameters);
}
return lambda;
}
protected override Expression VisitMemberAccess(MemberExpression m)
{
// at this point I go off and look at key mappings, fetch the mapping required, etc
// the entity I retrieve has a `TargetMemberInfo` property which is a `MemberInfo` for the
// member on the target entity - speaks for itself I guess...
return Expression.MakeMemberAccess(this.CurrentParameters.Single(), myMappingClassThing.TargetMemberInfo);
}
The Problem
With all that said and done, when I run through the code with a test case, I get the error in the title... I can see it's a parameter issue from the description, but having read about a similiar issue I had hoped I had accounted for the problem in the VisitMemberAccess
method by using the parameter I created when modifying the root lambda expression - same instance of ParameterExpression fixed the linked questions problem I think?
It seems I didn't understand that part of the process very well. The question is, where did I go wrong!? What is it I need to do with these ParameterExpressions for them to be ""in scope""?
Thanks in advance for your answers, and if you read this far, kudos to you!!