Retrieving Property name from lambda expression

Question

Is there a better way to get the Property name when passed in via a lambda expression? Here is what i currently have.

eg.

GetSortingInfo<User>(u => u.UserId);

It worked by casting it as a memberexpression only when the property was a string. because not all properties are strings i had to use object but then it would return a unaryexpression for those.

public static RouteValueDictionary GetInfo<T>(this HtmlHelper html, 
    Expression<Func<T, object>> action) where T : class
{
    var expression = GetMemberInfo(action);
    string name = expression.Member.Name;

    return GetInfo(html, name);
}

private static MemberExpression GetMemberInfo(Expression method)
{
    LambdaExpression lambda = method as LambdaExpression;
    if (lambda == null)
        throw new ArgumentNullException("method");

    MemberExpression memberExpr = null;

    if (lambda.Body.NodeType == ExpressionType.Convert)
    {
        memberExpr = 
            ((UnaryExpression)lambda.Body).Operand as MemberExpression;
    }
    else if (lambda.Body.NodeType == ExpressionType.MemberAccess)
    {
        memberExpr = lambda.Body as MemberExpression;
    }

    if (memberExpr == null)
        throw new ArgumentException("method");

    return memberExpr;
}

Answer 1

Starting with .NET 4.0 you can use ExpressionVisitor to find properties:

class ExprVisitor : ExpressionVisitor {
    public bool IsFound { get; private set; }
    public string MemberName { get; private set; }
    public Type MemberType { get; private set; }
    protected override Expression VisitMember(MemberExpression node) {
        if (!IsFound && node.Member.MemberType == MemberTypes.Property) {
            IsFound = true;
            MemberName = node.Member.Name;
            MemberType = node.Type;
        }
        return base.VisitMember(node);
    }
}

Here is how you use this visitor:

var visitor = new ExprVisitor();
visitor.Visit(expr);
if (visitor.IsFound) {
    Console.WriteLine("First property in the expression tree: Name={0}, Type={1}", visitor.MemberName, visitor.MemberType.FullName);
} else {
    Console.WriteLine("No properties found.");
}

Answer 2

now in C# 6 you can simply use nameof like this nameof(User.UserId)

which has many benefits, among them is that this is done at compile time, not runtime.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dn802602.aspx

Answer 3

I was playing around with the same thing and worked this up. It's not fully tested but seems to handle the issue with value types (the unaryexpression issue you ran into)

public static string GetName(Expression<Func<object>> exp)
{
    MemberExpression body = exp.Body as MemberExpression;

    if (body == null) {
       UnaryExpression ubody = (UnaryExpression)exp.Body;
       body = ubody.Operand as MemberExpression;
    }

    return body.Member.Name;
}

Answer 4

This is another answer:

public static string GetPropertyName<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
                                                                      Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression)
    {
        var metaData = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression(expression, htmlHelper.ViewData);

        return metaData.PropertyName;
    }

Answer 5

Here's an update to method proposed by Cameron. The first parameter is not required.

public PropertyInfo GetPropertyInfo<TSource, TProperty>(
    Expression<Func<TSource, TProperty>> propertyLambda)
{
    Type type = typeof(TSource);

    MemberExpression member = propertyLambda.Body as MemberExpression;
    if (member == null)
        throw new ArgumentException(string.Format(
            "Expression '{0}' refers to a method, not a property.",
            propertyLambda.ToString()));

    PropertyInfo propInfo = member.Member as PropertyInfo;
    if (propInfo == null)
        throw new ArgumentException(string.Format(
            "Expression '{0}' refers to a field, not a property.",
            propertyLambda.ToString()));

    if (type != propInfo.ReflectedType &&
        !type.IsSubclassOf(propInfo.ReflectedType))
        throw new ArgumentException(string.Format(
            "Expresion '{0}' refers to a property that is not from type {1}.",
            propertyLambda.ToString(),
            type));

    return propInfo;
}

You can do the following:

var propertyInfo = GetPropertyInfo<SomeType>(u => u.UserID);
var propertyInfo = GetPropertyInfo((SomeType u) => u.UserID);

Extension methods:

public static PropertyInfo GetPropertyInfo<TSource, TProperty>(this TSource source,
    Expression<Func<TSource, TProperty>> propertyLambda) where TSource : class
{
    return GetPropertyInfo(propertyLambda);
}

public static string NameOfProperty<TSource, TProperty>(this TSource source,
    Expression<Func<TSource, TProperty>> propertyLambda) where TSource : class
{
    PropertyInfo prodInfo = GetPropertyInfo(propertyLambda);
    return prodInfo.Name;
}

You can:

SomeType someInstance = null;
string propName = someInstance.NameOfProperty(i => i.Length);
PropertyInfo propInfo = someInstance.GetPropertyInfo(i => i.Length);

Answer 6

I recently did a very similar thing to make a type safe OnPropertyChanged method.

Here's a method that'll return the PropertyInfo object for the expression. It throws an exception if the expression is not a property.

public PropertyInfo GetPropertyInfo<TSource, TProperty>(
    TSource source,
    Expression<Func<TSource, TProperty>> propertyLambda)
{
    Type type = typeof(TSource);

    MemberExpression member = propertyLambda.Body as MemberExpression;
    if (member == null)
        throw new ArgumentException(string.Format(
            "Expression '{0}' refers to a method, not a property.",
            propertyLambda.ToString()));

    PropertyInfo propInfo = member.Member as PropertyInfo;
    if (propInfo == null)
        throw new ArgumentException(string.Format(
            "Expression '{0}' refers to a field, not a property.",
            propertyLambda.ToString()));

    if (type != propInfo.ReflectedType &&
        !type.IsSubclassOf(propInfo.ReflectedType))
        throw new ArgumentException(string.Format(
            "Expression '{0}' refers to a property that is not from type {1}.",
            propertyLambda.ToString(),
            type));

    return propInfo;
}

The source parameter is used so the compiler can do type inference on the method call. You can do the following

var propertyInfo = GetPropertyInfo(someUserObject, u => u.UserID);