Since we can:
Expression<Func<int, bool>> predicate = x => x > 5;
var result = Enumerable.Range(0,10).Where(predicate.Compile());
How can I:
Func<int,bool> predicate = x => x > 5;
Expression<Func<int,bool>> exp = predicate.Decompile();
That is, I want to get the corresponding Expression
of the Func
. Is it possible?
There is no magic Decompile()
for a delegate instance, short of deconstructing the IL (perhaps with mono.cecil). If you want an expression tree, you'll have to start with an expression tree, so have Expression<Func<int, bool>>
througout.
As an edge case, you can get basic method delegate information from the delegate's .Method
(the MethodInfo
) and .Target
(the arg0
) - however, for most scenarios involving a lambda or anonymous method this will point at the compiler-generate method on the capture class, so won't really help you much. It is pretty much limited to scenarios like:
Func<string,int> parse = int.Parse;
Pass the lambda to a method that accepts an Expression<> and the C# compiler will pass you an expression tree at runtime. However this only works if you pass the lambda directly, not if you try to pass a delegate instance created from a lambda.
var exp = Decompile(x => x > 5);
public Expression<Func<int, bool>> Decompile(Expression<Func<int, bool>> exp)
{
return exp;
}
The closest option I've found for decompiling a delegate instance is detailed in this blog post from Jean-Baptiste Evain who works on the Mono team. He uses the excellent Mono.Cecil project to decompile the IL into a custom AST, then he maps it as best as possible into LINQ expressions.
You can try to use my library:
https://github.com/ashmind/expressive
Though it may not work as is for results of Compile()
, since it is a DynamicMethod
and getting IL of it is not straightforward. If you implement your own IManagedMethod
implementation for DynamicMethod
, though, it should just work.
I plan to implement DynamicMethod
adapters, but do not yet know when.
You can’t decompile the delegate, but you can certainly create a new expression tree that simply calls the delegate:
Func<int, bool> predicate = x => x > 5;
Expression<Func<int, bool>> exp = x => predicate(x);