Convert Expression<Func<T, object>> to Expression<Func<object>>

Question

How to convert : Expression<Func<T, object>> to Expression<Func<object>> ?

For example:

public class Entity
{        
    public virtual long Id { get; set; }
}

Origin:

Expression<Func<Entity, object>> origin = x => x.Id;

Destination:

Entity alias = null;
Expression<Func<object>> destination = () => alias.Id;

Reason:

Actually I'm trying to create a custom cacheable ResultTransformer for Nhibernate. There is a method public QueryOverProjectionBuilder<T> WithAlias(Expression<Func<object>> alias); But in my classes for each particular entitites I would like to use more specific selector like Expression<Func<T, object>>

Answer 1

You have two options:

1. Invoke the expression as Luaan suggested
2. Replace the parameters with the value you would like (a constant or a different expression)

Option 1 is as simple as Expression.Invoke but may not be compatible with libraries such as LINQ. Option 2 is best done using an expression visitor:

    private class ExchangeParametersVisitor : ExpressionVisitor
    {
        public ParameterExpression Parameter { get; set; }
        public Expression Value { get; set; }

        protected override Expression VisitParameter(ParameterExpression node)
        {
            if (node == Parameter)
            {
                return Value;
            }
            return node;
        }
    }

What you need to do is apply the visitor to the body of your lambda expression and use it to create a new lambda expression that contains all parameters as before except the one you replaced.

Answer 2

That's what Expression.Invoke is for.

Create a new lambda expression, and use Expression.Invoke on the original expression to compose the two expressions.

Sample:

Expression<Func<string, int>> inner = x => int.Parse(x);
var outer = Expression.Lambda<Func<int>>
              (Expression.Invoke(inner, Expression.Constant("123")));

outer.Compile()().Dump(); // 123

Sadly, some expression parsers don't handle Invoke correctly - they assume it to be an invocation of a method, and reject it. In that case, you need to inline the expression. That means visiting the whole inner expression and replacing the ParameterExpression s with variables in the better case, or if parser doesn't support that either, inlining the argument in all the places.