Rename Parameter in Lambda Expression C#

Question

I have the following problem in my lambda expression: I need to rename the property because it will be passed from entity to entity. In other words: I need to use the same expression in more than one query in different entities.

For example:

var expr = x => x.Id == converterId

To be

var expr = x => x.ConverterId == converterId

I have tried to do the following

var oldParam = expr.Parameters[0];
var newParam = Expression.Parameter(oldParam.Type, "ConverterId");

This code replaces x not Id`

Answer 1

This isn't trivial, but can be done my writing (subclassing) an ExpressionVisitor , and overriding VisitMember , making the substitution for a different Expression.Property, but using the original target expression (from the expression in the original lambda)

However, for simple cases, it is probably easier to forget that, and just build the expression-tree manually from first principles, rather than using a lambda.

---

The following shows both approaches:

using System;
using System.Linq.Expressions;

static class P
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // the compiler-generated expression-tree from the question
        Console.WriteLine(Baseline(42));

        // build our own epression trees manually
        Console.WriteLine(ByName(42, nameof(Foo.Id)));
        Console.WriteLine(ByName(42, nameof(Foo.ConverterId)));

        // take the compiler-generated expression tree, and rewrite it with a visitor
        Console.WriteLine(Convert(Baseline(42), nameof(Foo.Id), nameof(Foo.ConverterId)));
    }
    static Expression<Func<Foo, bool>> Baseline(int converterId)
    {
        // note this uses a "captured variable", so the output
        // looks uglier than you might expect
        return x => x.Id == converterId;
    }
    static Expression<Func<Foo, bool>> ByName(int converterId, string propertyOrFieldName)
    {
        var p = Expression.Parameter(typeof(Foo), "x");
        var body = Expression.Equal(
            Expression.PropertyOrField(p, propertyOrFieldName),
            Expression.Constant(converterId, typeof(int))
            );
        return Expression.Lambda<Func<Foo, bool>>(body, p);
    }

    static Expression<Func<Foo, bool>> Convert(
        Expression<Func<Foo, bool>> lambda, string from, string to)
    {
        var visitor = new ConversionVisitor(from, to);
        return (Expression<Func<Foo, bool>>)visitor.Visit(lambda);
    }
    class ConversionVisitor : ExpressionVisitor
    {
        private readonly string _from, _to;
        public ConversionVisitor(string from, string to)
        {
            _from = from;
            _to = to;
        }
        protected override Expression VisitMember(MemberExpression node)
        {
            if(node.Member.Name == _from)
            {
                return Expression.PropertyOrField(
                    node.Expression, _to);
            }
            return base.VisitMember(node);
        }

    }
}
class Foo
{
    public int Id { get; set; }

    public int ConverterId { get; set; }
}