Access the value of a member expression

Question

If i have a product.

var p = new Product { Price = 30 };

and i have the following linq query.

var q = repo.Products().Where(x=>x.Price == p.Price).ToList()

In an IQueryable provider, I get a MemberExpression back for the p.Price which contains a Constant Expression, however I can't seem to get the value "30" back from it.

Update I have tried this but it doesn't seem to work.

var memberExpression = (MemberExpression)GetRootConstantExpression(m);
var fi = (PropertyInfo)memberExpression.Member;
var val = fi.GetValue(((ConstantExpression)memberExpression.Expression).Value, null);

Cheers.

Answer 1

You can compile and invoke a lambda expression whose body is the member access:

private object GetValue(MemberExpression member)
{
    var objectMember = Expression.Convert(member, typeof(object));

    var getterLambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<object>>(objectMember);

    var getter = getterLambda.Compile();

    return getter();
}

Local evaluation is a common technique when parsing expression trees. LINQ to SQL does this exact thing in quite a few places.