Dynamic Linq Orderby on Ienumerable≪T≫/Iqueryable≪T≫

Dynamic LINQ OrderBy on IEnumerableT / IQueryableT

Just stumbled into this oldie...

To do this without the dynamic LINQ library, you just need the code as below. This covers most common scenarios including nested properties.

To get it working with IEnumerable<T> you could add some wrapper methods that go via AsQueryable - but the code below is the core Expression logic needed.

public static IOrderedQueryable<T> OrderBy<T>(
    this IQueryable<T> source, 
    string property)
{
    return ApplyOrder<T>(source, property, "OrderBy");
}

public static IOrderedQueryable<T> OrderByDescending<T>(
    this IQueryable<T> source, 
    string property)
{
    return ApplyOrder<T>(source, property, "OrderByDescending");
}

public static IOrderedQueryable<T> ThenBy<T>(
    this IOrderedQueryable<T> source, 
    string property)
{
    return ApplyOrder<T>(source, property, "ThenBy");
}

public static IOrderedQueryable<T> ThenByDescending<T>(
    this IOrderedQueryable<T> source, 
    string property)
{
    return ApplyOrder<T>(source, property, "ThenByDescending");
}

static IOrderedQueryable<T> ApplyOrder<T>(
    IQueryable<T> source, 
    string property, 
    string methodName) 
{
    string[] props = property.Split('.');
    Type type = typeof(T);
    ParameterExpression arg = Expression.Parameter(type, "x");
    Expression expr = arg;
    foreach(string prop in props) {
        // use reflection (not ComponentModel) to mirror LINQ
        PropertyInfo pi = type.GetProperty(prop);
        expr = Expression.Property(expr, pi);
        type = pi.PropertyType;
    }
    Type delegateType = typeof(Func<,>).MakeGenericType(typeof(T), type);
    LambdaExpression lambda = Expression.Lambda(delegateType, expr, arg);

    object result = typeof(Queryable).GetMethods().Single(
            method => method.Name == methodName
                    && method.IsGenericMethodDefinition
                    && method.GetGenericArguments().Length == 2
                    && method.GetParameters().Length == 2)
            .MakeGenericMethod(typeof(T), type)
            .Invoke(null, new object[] {source, lambda});
    return (IOrderedQueryable<T>)result;
}

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Edit: it gets more fun if you want to mix that with dynamic - although note that dynamic only applies to LINQ-to-Objects (expression-trees for ORMs etc can't really represent dynamic queries - MemberExpression doesn't support it). But here's a way to do it with LINQ-to-Objects. Note that the choice of Hashtable is due to favorable locking semantics:

using Microsoft.CSharp.RuntimeBinder;
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Dynamic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
static class Program
{
    private static class AccessorCache
    {
        private static readonly Hashtable accessors = new Hashtable();

        private static readonly Hashtable callSites = new Hashtable();

        private static CallSite<Func<CallSite, object, object>> GetCallSiteLocked(
            string name) 
        {
            var callSite = (CallSite<Func<CallSite, object, object>>)callSites[name];
            if(callSite == null)
            {
                callSites[name] = callSite = CallSite<Func<CallSite, object, object>>
                    .Create(Binder.GetMember(
                                CSharpBinderFlags.None, 
                                name, 
                                typeof(AccessorCache),
                                new CSharpArgumentInfo[] { 
                                    CSharpArgumentInfo.Create(
                                        CSharpArgumentInfoFlags.None, 
                                        null) 
                                }));
            }
            return callSite;
        }

        internal static Func<dynamic,object> GetAccessor(string name)
        {
            Func<dynamic, object> accessor = (Func<dynamic, object>)accessors[name];
            if (accessor == null)
            {
                lock (accessors )
                {
                    accessor = (Func<dynamic, object>)accessors[name];
                    if (accessor == null)
                    {
                        if(name.IndexOf('.') >= 0) {
                            string[] props = name.Split('.');
                            CallSite<Func<CallSite, object, object>>[] arr 
                                = Array.ConvertAll(props, GetCallSiteLocked);
                            accessor = target =>
                            {
                                object val = (object)target;
                                for (int i = 0; i < arr.Length; i++)
                                {
                                    var cs = arr[i];
                                    val = cs.Target(cs, val);
                                }
                                return val;
                            };
                        } else {
                            var callSite = GetCallSiteLocked(name);
                            accessor = target =>
                            {
                                return callSite.Target(callSite, (object)target);
                            };
                        }
                        accessors[name] = accessor;
                    }
                }
            }
            return accessor;
        }
    }

    public static IOrderedEnumerable<dynamic> OrderBy(
        this IEnumerable<dynamic> source, 
        string property)
    {
        return Enumerable.OrderBy<dynamic, object>(
            source, 
            AccessorCache.GetAccessor(property), 
            Comparer<object>.Default);
    }

    public static IOrderedEnumerable<dynamic> OrderByDescending(
        this IEnumerable<dynamic> source, 
        string property)
    {
        return Enumerable.OrderByDescending<dynamic, object>(
            source, 
            AccessorCache.GetAccessor(property), 
            Comparer<object>.Default);
    }

    public static IOrderedEnumerable<dynamic> ThenBy(
        this IOrderedEnumerable<dynamic> source, 
        string property)
    {
        return Enumerable.ThenBy<dynamic, object>(
            source, 
            AccessorCache.GetAccessor(property), 
            Comparer<object>.Default);
    }

    public static IOrderedEnumerable<dynamic> ThenByDescending(
        this IOrderedEnumerable<dynamic> source, 
        string property)
    {
        return Enumerable.ThenByDescending<dynamic, object>(
            source, 
            AccessorCache.GetAccessor(property), 
            Comparer<object>.Default);
    }

    static void Main()
    {
        dynamic a = new ExpandoObject(), 
                b = new ExpandoObject(), 
                c = new ExpandoObject();
        a.X = "abc";
        b.X = "ghi";
        c.X = "def";
        dynamic[] data = new[] { 
            new { Y = a },
            new { Y = b }, 
            new { Y = c } 
        };

        var ordered = data.OrderByDescending("Y.X").ToArray();
        foreach (var obj in ordered)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(obj.Y.X);
        }
    }
}

Dynamic Order By in Linq

Well, you definitely want to use OrderByDescending instead of reversing. It's not going to be quite as brief as the SQL, but you could at least use:

IQueryable<Entity> GetSortedData(IQueryable<Entity> result, String orderby, bool desc)
{
   switch (orderby.ToLowerInvariant())
   {
     case "id":
         return desc ? result.OrderByDescending(c => c.Id) : result.OrderBy(c => c.Id);
     case "code":
         return desc ? result.OrderByDescending(c => c.Code) : result.OrderBy(c => c.Code);
     case "active":
         return desc ? result.OrderByDescending(c => c.Active) : result.OrderBy(c => c.Active);
     default:
         return desc ? result.OrderByDescending(c => c.Name) : result.OrderBy(c => c.Name);
   }
}

You could remove that repetition with your own extension method:

public static IOrderedQueryable<TSource> OrderBy<TSource, TKey>(
    this IQueryable<TSource> source,
    Expression<Func<TSource, TKey>> keySelector,
    bool descending) =>
    descending ? source.OrderByDescending(keySelector) : source.OrderBy(keySelector);

Then write:

IQueryable<Entity> GetSortedData(IQueryable<Entity> result, String orderby, bool desc)
{
   switch (orderby.ToLowerInvariant())
   {
     case "id": return result.OrderBy(c => c.Id, desc);
     case "code": return result.OrderBy(c => c.Code, desc);
     case "active": return result.OrderBy(c => c.Active, desc);
     default: return result.OrderBy(c => c.Name, desc);
   }
}

Dynamic Linq Order By Variable

If I understand correctly, the following simple custom extension methods should do the job:

public static class LinqExtensions
{
    public static IOrderedEnumerable<TSource> OrderBy<TSource, TKey>(
        this IEnumerable<TSource> source,
        Func<TSource, TKey> keySelector,
        bool ascending)
    {
        return ascending ? source.OrderBy(keySelector) : source.OrderByDescending(keySelector);
    }

    public static IOrderedEnumerable<TSource> ThenBy<TSource, TKey>(
        this IOrderedEnumerable<TSource> source,
        Func<TSource, TKey> keySelector,
        bool ascending)
    {
        return ascending ? source.ThenBy(keySelector) : source.ThenByDescending(keySelector);
    }

    public static IOrderedQueryable<TSource> OrderBy<TSource, TKey>(
        this IQueryable<TSource> source,
        Expression<Func<TSource, TKey>> keySelector,
        bool ascending)
    {
        return ascending ? source.OrderBy(keySelector) : source.OrderByDescending(keySelector);
    }

    public static IOrderedQueryable<TSource> ThenBy<TSource, TKey>(
        this IOrderedQueryable<TSource> source,
        Expression<Func<TSource, TKey>> keySelector,
        bool ascending)
    {
        return ascending ? source.ThenBy(keySelector) : source.ThenByDescending(keySelector);
    }
}

And the usage will be:

//passed in values:
var varAcctNumOrd = "desc";
var varDateOrd = "asc";
var varAcctOrd = "desc";

var sortedCode = records.OrderBy(r => r.AcctNum, varAcctNumOrd != "desc")
                        .ThenBy(r => r.AcctDate, varDateOrd != "desc")
                        .ThenBy(r => r.AcctNum, varAcctOrd != "desc")
                        .ToList();

How to store Microsoft's Dynamic Linq's OrderBy in a variable?

Is this what your looking for?

Func<IQueryable<T>, IOrderedQueryable<T>> _orderBy = t => t.OrderBy( String.Join(",", orderBy));

How to Conditionally the column in LINQ OrderByDescending for OrderBy?

You can use the library System.Linq.Dynamic.Core which supports dynamic querying, selecting and ordering.

Example code:

var q = new List<Person>
{
    new Person{Name = "C", Age = 30 },
    new Person{Name = "A", Age = 7 },
    new Person{Name = "B", Age = 5 }
}.AsQueryable();

var x1 = q.OrderBy("Name asc");

var a1 = q.OrderBy("Age desc");

For a full working example, see dotnetfiddle

Why is System.Linq.Dynamic.Core OrderBy not working with ImmutableArray?

This appears to be a bug in .Net (Core), specifically in the validation of arguments for Expression.Call.

Ultimately the first parameter is validated by calling TypeUtils.AreReferenceAssignable and the code assumes that a value type cannot be (reference) assignable to a non-value type, and ImmutableArray is a value type because it is implemented with a struct.

I opened an issue on github to see what others think.

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