How to construct Order By Expression dynamically in Entity Framework?

Question

I used the following methods to construct Order By Expression. Original Source

It is really slick. The downside is it only works if Property is string type.

How can I make it to accept different Property type without creating a bunch of methods for different data types?

public static bool PropertyExists<T>(string propertyName)
{
    return typeof (T).GetProperty(propertyName, BindingFlags.IgnoreCase |
      BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance) != null;
}

public static Expression<Func<T, string>> GetPropertyExpression<T>(string propertyName)
{
    if (typeof(T).GetProperty(propertyName, BindingFlags.IgnoreCase | 
        BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance) == null)
    {
        return null;
    }

    var paramterExpression = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T));

    return (Expression<Func<T, string>>)Expression.Lambda(
        Expression.PropertyOrField(paramterExpression, propertyName), paramterExpression);
}

Usage

// orderBy can be either Name or City.
if (QueryHelper.PropertyExists<Club>(orderBy)) 
{ 
   var orderByExpression = QueryHelper.GetPropertyExpression<Club>(orderBy); 
   clubQuery = clubQuery.OrderBy(orderByExpression); 
} 
else 
{ 
   clubQuery = clubQuery.OrderBy(c => c.Id); 
} 

Problem

public class Club 
{ 
  public int Id { get; set; } 
  public string Name { get; set; } 
  public string City { get; set; } 
  public DateTime CreateDate { get; set; } <= this won't work
} 

My Current Approach (Too many if statements)

public static Expression<Func<TSource, TKey>> 
    GetPropertyExpression<TSource, TKey>(string propertyName)
{
    if (typeof (TSource).GetProperty(propertyName, BindingFlags.IgnoreCase | 
        BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance) == null)
    {
        return null;
    }
    var paramterExpression = Expression.Parameter(typeof (TSource));
    return (Expression<Func<TSource, TKey>>) 
        Expression.Lambda(Expression.PropertyOrField(
           paramterExpression, propertyName), paramterExpression);
}

The downside is I end up with a lot of if statements for each datatype.

if (QueryHelper.PropertyExists<Club>(orderBy)) 
{
   if(orderBy == "CreateDate")
   {       
      var orderByExpression = GetPropertyExpression<Club, DateTime>(orderBy);
      ...
   }
   else if(orderBy == "Name" || orderBy == "City")
   {
      var orderByExpression = GetPropertyExpression<Club, string>(orderBy);
      ...
   }
   ...
}
else 
{ 
   clubQuery = clubQuery.OrderBy(c => c.Id); 
} 

Answer 1

I found a solution with the help of Jon Skeet's old answer.

public static class QueryHelper
{
    private static readonly MethodInfo OrderByMethod =
        typeof (Queryable).GetMethods().Single(method => 
        method.Name == "OrderBy" && method.GetParameters().Length == 2);

    private static readonly MethodInfo OrderByDescendingMethod =
        typeof (Queryable).GetMethods().Single(method => 
        method.Name == "OrderByDescending" && method.GetParameters().Length == 2);

    public static bool PropertyExists<T>(this IQueryable<T> source, string propertyName)
    {
        return typeof(T).GetProperty(propertyName, BindingFlags.IgnoreCase |
            BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance) != null;
    }

    public static IQueryable<T> OrderByProperty<T>(
       this IQueryable<T> source, string propertyName)
    {
        if (typeof (T).GetProperty(propertyName, BindingFlags.IgnoreCase | 
            BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance) == null)
        {
            return null;
        }
        ParameterExpression paramterExpression = Expression.Parameter(typeof (T));
        Expression orderByProperty = Expression.Property(paramterExpression, propertyName);
        LambdaExpression lambda = Expression.Lambda(orderByProperty, paramterExpression);
        MethodInfo genericMethod = 
          OrderByMethod.MakeGenericMethod(typeof (T), orderByProperty.Type);
        object ret = genericMethod.Invoke(null, new object[] {source, lambda});
        return (IQueryable<T>) ret;
    }

    public static IQueryable<T> OrderByPropertyDescending<T>(
        this IQueryable<T> source, string propertyName)
    {
        if (typeof (T).GetProperty(propertyName, BindingFlags.IgnoreCase | 
            BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance) == null)
        {
            return null;
        }
        ParameterExpression paramterExpression = Expression.Parameter(typeof (T));
        Expression orderByProperty = Expression.Property(paramterExpression, propertyName);
        LambdaExpression lambda = Expression.Lambda(orderByProperty, paramterExpression);
        MethodInfo genericMethod = 
          OrderByDescendingMethod.MakeGenericMethod(typeof (T), orderByProperty.Type);
        object ret = genericMethod.Invoke(null, new object[] {source, lambda});
        return (IQueryable<T>) ret;
    }
}

Usage

string orderBy = "Name";
if (query.PropertyExists(orderBy))
{
   query = query.OrderByProperty(orderBy);
   - OR - 
   query = query.OrderByPropertyDescending(orderBy);
}

Answer 2

I have, IMHO, a simpler solution:

public static IOrderedQueryable<TSource> Sort<TSource>(this IQueryable<TSource> source, bool ascending , string sortingProperty)
{
    if (ascending)
        return source.OrderBy(item => item.GetReflectedPropertyValue(sortingProperty));
    else
        return source.OrderByDescending(item => item.GetReflectedPropertyValue(sortingProperty));
}

private static object GetReflectedPropertyValue(this object subject, string field)
{
    return subject.GetType().GetProperty(field).GetValue(subject, null);
}

The usage is:

myQueryableCollection.Sort(ascending: true, "Name")

Of course, the PropertyExist() helper is a great addition...