Replace parameter in lambda expression

Question

Considering this code:

public class Foo
{
    public int a { get; set; }
    public int b { get; set; }
}

private void Test()
{
    List<Foo> foos = new List<Foo>();
    foos.Add(new Foo());
    foos.Add(new Foo());
    Expression<Func<Foo, int>> exp0 = f => f.a * f.b;
    Expression<Func<int>> exp1 = () => foos[0].a * foos[0].b;
    Expression<Func<int>> exp2 = () => foos[1].a * foos[1].b;
}

How can you take exp0 and turn it into two expressions identical to exp1 and exp2. Note that I don't want to just evaluate exp0 for each Foo in foos, but instead get two new expressions.

[Update]:

Basically, I want to be able to expand or "flatten" an expression passed to a Linq extension method such as Sum into one expression per item in the enumeration since these enumerations will be static, and because I already have code that reads expressions that don't take parameters (and then turns them into another language).

I'm using the MetadataToken as a references to properties that have a certain attribute (in this case a and b would have this attribute) and using it with a dictionary that correlates C# properties to another language's variables:

Foo foo = new Foo();
Expression<Func<int>> exp = () => foo.a * foo.a + foo.b;
string result1 = GetResult(exp); // gets "v_001 * v_001 + v_002"

List<Foo> foes = new List<Foo>();
foes.Add(new Foo());
foes.Add(new Foo());
Expression<Func<int>> exp2 = () => foes.Sum(f => f.a * f.a + f.b);
string result2 = GetResult(exp2); // should get "(v_001 * v_001 + v_002) + (v_003 * v_003 + v_004)"

Can you give us an example of how you would use this and what the output would be? — Jon Senchyna
– Jon Senchyna, Commented Jun 22, 2012 at 15:57

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:17:59Z

I would do it this way:

Write a parameter-replacer expression-visitor that manipulates the original expression as follows:

Gets rid of the parameter you don't want entirely from the lambda signature.
Replaces all uses of the parameter with the desired indexer expression.

Here's a quick and dirty sample I whipped up based on my earlier answer on a different question:

public static class ParameterReplacer
{
    // Produces an expression identical to 'expression'
    // except with 'source' parameter replaced with 'target' expression.     
    public static Expression<TOutput> Replace<TInput, TOutput>
                    (Expression<TInput> expression,
                    ParameterExpression source,
                    Expression target)
    {
        return new ParameterReplacerVisitor<TOutput>(source, target)
                    .VisitAndConvert(expression);
    }

    private class ParameterReplacerVisitor<TOutput> : ExpressionVisitor
    {
        private ParameterExpression _source;
        private Expression _target;

        public ParameterReplacerVisitor
                (ParameterExpression source, Expression target)
        {
            _source = source;
            _target = target;
        }

        internal Expression<TOutput> VisitAndConvert<T>(Expression<T> root)
        {
            return (Expression<TOutput>)VisitLambda(root);
        }

        protected override Expression VisitLambda<T>(Expression<T> node)
        {
            // Leave all parameters alone except the one we want to replace.
            var parameters = node.Parameters
                                 .Where(p => p != _source);

            return Expression.Lambda<TOutput>(Visit(node.Body), parameters);
        }

        protected override Expression VisitParameter(ParameterExpression node)
        {
            // Replace the source with the target, visit other params as usual.
            return node == _source ? _target : base.VisitParameter(node);
        }
    }
}

Usage for your scenario (tested):

var zeroIndexIndexer = Expression.MakeIndex
        (Expression.Constant(foos),
         typeof(List<Foo>).GetProperty("Item"), 
         new[] { Expression.Constant(0) });


// .ToString() of the below looks like the following: 
//  () =>    (value(System.Collections.Generic.List`1[App.Foo]).Item[0].a
//         *  value(System.Collections.Generic.List`1[App.Foo]).Item[0].b)
var exp1Clone = ParameterReplacer.Replace<Func<Foo, int>, Func<int>>
                  (exp0, exp0.Parameters.Single(), zeroIndexIndexer);

For nested lambdas, I found I must use Expression.Lambda(...) instead of Expression.Lambda<TOutput>(...). The type parameter version seems unnecessary in any case.

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