In C#, Is Expression API better than Reflection

Question

Nowadays, I'm exploring C# Expression APIs. So I could use some help understanding how it works, including the difference between Expression and Reflection. I also want to understand if Expressions are merely syntactic sugar, or are they indeed better than Reflection performance-wise?

Good examples as well as links to good articles would be appreciated. :-)

Answer 1

Regarding calling one method :

• Direct call can't be beaten speed-wise.

• Using Expression API is globally similar to using Reflection.Emit or Delegate.CreateDelegate speed-wise (Small differences could be measured; as always optimizing for speed without measurements and goals is useless).

  They all generate IL and the framework will compile it to native code at some point. But you still pay the cost of one indirection level for calling the delegate and one method call inside your delegate.

  The expression API is more limited, but an order of magnitude simpler to use, as it doesn't require you to learn IL.

• The Dynamic Language Runtime either used directly or via the dynamic keyword of C# 4 add a little overhead but stay near emitting code as it cache most checks related to parameter types, access and the rest.

  When used via the dynamic keyword it's also get the neatest syntax as it looks like a normal method call. But if you use dynamic you are limited to method calls while the library is able to do a lot more (See IronPython)

• System.Reflection.MethodInfo.Invoke is slow : in addition to what other methods do it need to check access rights, check arguments count, type, ... against the MethodInfo each time you call the method.

Jon Skeet also get some good points in this answer : Delegate.CreateDelegate vs DynamicMethod vs Expression

---

Some samples, the same thing done different ways.

You could already see from the line count and complexity which solutions are easy to maintain and which should be avoided from a long term maintenance standpoint.

Most of the samples are pointless but they demonstrate the basic code generation classes / syntaxes of C#, for more info there is always the MSDN

PS: Dump is a LINQPad method.

public class Foo
{
    public string Bar(int value) { return value.ToString(); }
}

void Main()
{
    object foo = new Foo();

    // We have an instance of something and want to call a method with this signature on it :
    // public string Bar(int value);

    Console.WriteLine("Cast and Direct method call");
    {
        var result = ((Foo)foo).Bar(42);
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Create a lambda closing on the local scope.");
    {
        // Useless but i'll do it at the end by manual il generation

        Func<int, string> func = i => ((Foo)foo).Bar(i);
        var result = func(42);
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Using MethodInfo.Invoke");
    {
        var method = foo.GetType().GetMethod("Bar");
        var result = (string)method.Invoke(foo, new object[] { 42 });
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Using the dynamic keyword");
    {
        var dynamicFoo = (dynamic)foo;
        var result = (string)dynamicFoo.Bar(42);
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Using CreateDelegate");
    {
        var method = foo.GetType().GetMethod("Bar");
        var func = (Func<int, string>)Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<int, string>), foo, method);
        var result = func(42);
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Create an expression and compile it to call the delegate on one instance.");
    {
        var method = foo.GetType().GetMethod("Bar");
        var thisParam = Expression.Constant(foo);
        var valueParam = Expression.Parameter(typeof(int), "value");
        var call = Expression.Call(thisParam, method, valueParam);
        var lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<int, string>>(call, valueParam);
        var func = lambda.Compile();
        var result = func(42);
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Create an expression and compile it to a delegate that could be called on any instance.");
    {
        // Note that in this case "Foo" must be known at compile time, obviously in this case you want
        // to do more than call a method, otherwise just call it !
        var type = foo.GetType();
        var method = type.GetMethod("Bar");
        var thisParam = Expression.Parameter(type, "this");
        var valueParam = Expression.Parameter(typeof(int), "value");
        var call = Expression.Call(thisParam, method, valueParam);
        var lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<Foo, int, string>>(call, thisParam, valueParam);
        var func = lambda.Compile();
        var result = func((Foo)foo, 42);
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Create a DynamicMethod and compile it to a delegate that could be called on any instance.");
    {
        // Same thing as the previous expression sample. Foo need to be known at compile time and need
        // to be provided to the delegate.

        var type = foo.GetType();
        var method = type.GetMethod("Bar");

        var dynamicMethod = new DynamicMethod("Bar_", typeof(string), new [] { typeof(Foo), typeof(int) }, true);
        var il = dynamicMethod.GetILGenerator();
        il.DeclareLocal(typeof(string));
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_1);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Call, method);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);
        var func = (Func<Foo, int, string>)dynamicMethod.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<Foo, int, string>));
        var result = func((Foo)foo, 42);
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Simulate closure without closures and in a lot more lines...");
    {
        var type = foo.GetType();
        var method = type.GetMethod("Bar");

        // The Foo class must be public for this to work, the "skipVisibility" argument of
        // DynamicMethod.CreateDelegate can't be emulated without breaking the .Net security model.

        var assembly = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.DefineDynamicAssembly(
            new AssemblyName("MyAssembly"), AssemblyBuilderAccess.Run);
        var module = assembly.DefineDynamicModule("MyModule");
        var tb = module.DefineType("MyType", TypeAttributes.Class | TypeAttributes.Public);

        var fooField = tb.DefineField("FooInstance", type, FieldAttributes.Public);
        var barMethod = tb.DefineMethod("Bar_", MethodAttributes.Public, typeof(string), new [] { typeof(int) });
        var il = barMethod.GetILGenerator();
        il.DeclareLocal(typeof(string));
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_0); // this
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ldfld, fooField);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_1); // arg
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Call, method);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);

        var closureType = tb.CreateType();

        var instance = closureType.GetConstructors().Single().Invoke(new object[0]);

        closureType.GetField(fooField.Name).SetValue(instance, foo);

        var methodOnClosureType = closureType.GetMethod("Bar_");

        var func = (Func<int, string>)Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<int, string>), instance,
            closureType.GetMethod("Bar_"));
        var result = func(42);
        result.Dump();
    }
}