Develop Reference

Map [name,value] string values to class without reflection

I'm having a huge performance issue about mapping string property names and string property values to classes using reflection.
My issue now:
public class Person
{
public string Property1 { get; set; }
public string Property2 { get; set; }
public string Property3 { get; set; }
public string Property4 { get; set; }
// My class has around 100 properties
public string Property100 { get; set; }
}
I am mapping a key value pair collection to the class using reflection
[{"Property1": "some value"}, {"Property2": "something else"},{"Property3","Property4","value" }.....{"Property100","val"}]
It got to the point that I am now mapping around 10 000 class instances using reflection and the performance is to say it lightly bad.
Any ideas for eliminating the reflection would be greatly appreciated.

I see two options, if you need to avoid reflection for tasks like this(when code could be programatically generated).
First is Expressions I use it often, e.g. I saw some people write something like this
public class A
{
public Prop1 ...
....
public Prop100
public override ToString() => $"{nameof(Prop1)}={Prop1};...";
and so for all 100 properties, and always doing this manually.
And with Expression it can be easily automated, you just need to generate Expression for String.Concat and pass list of properties and names there.
For your example, it is not clear what are your data. How do you do lookup in the list?
Let's assume there is a dictionary<string,string>(you can transform your list of tuples to a dictionary), and all properties are strings as well.
Then we would need to generate a list assignment expressions like this
if(data.ContainsKey("Prop1")) result.Prop1 = data["Prop1"];
And the code would be complicated, anyway it would look like this
private static class CompiledDelegate<T>
{
public static Action<T, Dictionary<string, string>> initObject;
static CompiledDelegate()
{
var i = Expression.Parameter(typeof(Dictionary<string, string>), "i");
var v = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "v");
var propertyInfos = typeof(T).GetProperties().ToArray();
var t = new Dictionary<string, string>();
var contains = typeof(Dictionary<string, string>).GetMethod(nameof(Dictionary<string, string>.ContainsKey));
var getter = typeof(Dictionary<string, string>).GetProperties().First(x => x.GetIndexParameters().Length > 0);
var result = new List<Expression>();
foreach (var propertyInfo in propertyInfos)
{
var cst = Expression.Constant(propertyInfo.Name);
var assignExpression =
Expression.IfThen(Expression.Call(i, contains, cst),
Expression.Assign(Expression.PropertyOrField(v, propertyInfo.Name), Expression.MakeIndex(i, getter, new[] { cst })));
result.Add(assignExpression);
}
var block = Expression.Block(result);
initObject = Expression.Lambda<Action<T, Dictionary<string, string>>>(block, new ParameterExpression[] { v, i }).Compile();
}
}
It is an example, it would fail if there were non-string properties.
And it could be used like this
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var tst = new Test();
CompiledDelegate<Test>.initObject(tst, new Dictionary<string, string>
{
{ "S3", "Value3" },
{ "S2", "Value2" },
});
CompiledDelegate<Test>.initObject(tst, new Dictionary<string, string>
{
{ "S3", "Value3" },
{ "S1", "Value1" },
});
Console.ReadKey();
}
The second option is, actually, what it should be ideally imlemented like Using source generators I think such things do have to be done just in build time.
There is a lot of articles on msdn, for instance with samples. But it turned out to be not very easy to implement, even just a sample.
I can say, it didn't work for me, while I tried to do it according to samples.
In order to get it work I had to change TargetFramework to netstandard2.0, do something else...
But after all, when build was green, Visual Studio still showed an error.
Ok, it disappeared after VS restart, but still, that doesn't look very usable.
So, this is a generator, that creates a converter for every class with attribute.
It is again a sample, it doesn't check many things.
[Generator]
public class ConverterGenerator : ISourceGenerator
{
private static string mytemplate = #"using System.Collections.Generic;
using {2};
namespace GeneratedConverters
{{
public static class {0}Converter
{{
public static {0} Convert(Dictionary<string, string> data)
{{
var result = new {0}();
{1}
return result;
}}
}}
}}";
public static string GetNamespaceFrom(SyntaxNode s)
{
if (s.Parent is NamespaceDeclarationSyntax namespaceDeclarationSyntax)
{
return namespaceDeclarationSyntax.Name.ToString();
}
if (s.Parent == null)
return "";
return GetNamespaceFrom(s.Parent);
}
public void Execute(GeneratorExecutionContext context)
{
GetMenuComponents(context, context.Compilation);
}
private static void GetMenuComponents(GeneratorExecutionContext context, Compilation compilation)
{
var allNodes = compilation.SyntaxTrees.SelectMany(s => s.GetRoot().DescendantNodes());
var allClasses = allNodes.Where(d => d.IsKind(SyntaxKind.ClassDeclaration)).OfType<ClassDeclarationSyntax>();
var classes = allClasses
.Where(c => c.AttributeLists.SelectMany(a => a.Attributes).Select(a => a.Name).Any(s => s.ToString().Contains("DictionaryConverter")))
.ToImmutableArray();
foreach (var item in classes.Distinct().Take(1))
{
context.AddSource(item.Identifier.Text + "Converter", String.Format(mytemplate, item.Identifier.Text, SourceText.From(GenerateProperties(item)), GetNamespaceFrom(item)));
}
}
private static string GenerateProperties(ClassDeclarationSyntax s)
{
var properties = s.Members.OfType<PropertyDeclarationSyntax>();
return String.Join(Environment.NewLine,
properties.Select(p =>
{
var name = p.Identifier.Text;
return $"if(data.ContainsKey(\"{name}\")) result.{name} = data[\"{name}\"];";
}));
}
public void Initialize(GeneratorInitializationContext context)
{
}
}
and
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var t1 = GeneratedConverters.TestConverter.Convert(new Dictionary<string, string>
{
{ "S3", "Value3" },
{ "S2", "Value2" },
});
}

Best performance without reflection would be manual mapping.
It seems your key/value pair collection is regular JSON. So you could use the JSONTextReader from JSON.NET and read the string. Then manually map the JSON properties to the class properties.
Like so:
JsonTextReader reader = new JsonTextReader(new StringReader(jsonString));
while (reader.Read())
{
if (reader.Value != null)
{
// check reader.Value.ToString() and assign to correct class property
}
}
More info can be found on the JSON.NET website : https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/ReadingWritingJSON.htm

How to get attribute in C# object like javascript?

There is a function I want to implement in C#:
public string getName(object ob)
{
// TODO: if object has "Name" attribute, return "Name".Value, else return null;
}
When I invoke this function,
string result1 = getName(new {Name = "jack", Age = 12}) // result1 = "jack"
string result2 = getName(new {Age = 12}) // result2 = null
I know it's easy to implement in JavaScript or other dynamic languages... I am curious about if it can implement in C#?

Yes, you can. Take a look to Reflection
public string getName(object ob)
{
var type = ob.GetType();
if (type.GetProperty("Name") == null) return null;
else return type.GetProperty("Name").GetValue(ob, null);
}

There is several ways to achieve that. For example by using reflection. It will take one line code:
public static string GetName(object ob) =>
ob.GetType().GetProperty("Name")?.GetValue(ob)?.ToString();
Or below c#6 way:
public static string GetName(object ob)
{
return ob.GetType().GetProperty("Name")?.GetValue(ob)?.ToString();
}
You can even serialize your object to JSON or XML, then try to get your value from that:
public static string GetName(object obj)
{
string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj);
string result = JsonConvert.DeserializeAnonymousType(json, new { Name = "" })?.Name;
return result;
}

UPDATE: While this may work for your needs, it is probably not the best solution as pointed out by Grek40, and Damien_The_Unbeliever in comments below due to several limitations.
Not completely deleting the answer as it may give you some information about the alternative despite of its limitations.
Original Answer:
Try this..
Rextester can be found -- http://rextester.com/DQOBW76322
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
namespace Rextester
{
public class Program
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
string result1 = getName(new {Name = "jack", Age = 12}); // result1 = "jack"
string result2 = getName(new {Age = 12});
Console.WriteLine(result1);
Console.WriteLine(result2);
}
public static string getName(object obj)
{
var testData = obj.GetType().GetProperties().ToDictionary(p => p.Name, p => p.GetValue(obj).ToString());
if(testData.Any(d => d.Key == "Name")){
return testData["Name"];
}
return null;
}
}
}

Dynamically convert property to Type

Is it possible to simplify this logic, Is there generic way to do it.
The code finds marked attributes and parses it according to the attribute type.
Please suggest some way to optimize this code, all the data type of Product class will be string, I'm getting product input as xml directly converting serialized data to a class with decimal,int,float will not give proper error message, If there is list of item it throws error in xml we wont know which row has caused the error.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace TestSolution
{
public interface ICustomParser
{
bool Parse(string input);
}
public class DecimalParserAttribute : Attribute, ICustomParser
{
public bool Parse(string input)
{
if (input == null) return false;
decimal decimalValue;
return decimal.TryParse(input, out decimalValue);
}
}
public class intParserAttribute : Attribute, ICustomParser
{
public bool Parse(string input)
{
if (input == null) return false;
int intValue;
return int.TryParse(input, out intValue);
}
}
public class Product
{
[DecimalParser]
public string Weight { get; set; }
[intParser]
public string NoOfItems { get; set; }
[intParser]
public string GRodes { get; set; }
[intParser]
public string WRodes { get; set; }
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var sb = Validate(new Product() { NoOfItems = "1", GRodes = "4", Weight = "5", WRodes = "23" });
Console.WriteLine(sb);
sb = Validate(new Product() { NoOfItems = "1", GRodes = "4w", Weight = "5", WRodes = "23" });
Console.WriteLine(sb);
Console.ReadKey();
}
private static string Validate(Product product)
{
var sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (var property in product.GetType().GetProperties())
{
var value = Convert.ToString(property.GetValue(product, null));
var sel = property.GetAttribute<ICustomParser>();
if (sel == null) continue;
var parserinstance = (ICustomParser)Activator.CreateInstance(sel.GetType());
if (parserinstance.Parse(value)) continue;
sb.AppendLine(string.Format("{0} Has invalid value", property.Name));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
}
public static class Extensions
{
public static T GetAttribute<T>(this PropertyInfo property)
{
return (T)property.GetCustomAttributes(false).Where(s => s is T).FirstOrDefault();
}
}
}

If you only have one type (Product), it probably isn't worth it - just write the validation code explicitly without all the fancy stuff. If, however, you have multiple types to inspect (perhaps known only at runtime):
It really depends how fast it needs to be. How often does this run? If it is periodic, then there isn't a vast amount to do - the main change would be to just cast the parser directly:
var parserInstance = (ICustomParser)sel;
(it already is the attribute type)
If it is critical path, then there is a lot you can do to beef it up, but you get into the realm of metaprogramming - which is essentially what most tools like serializers and ORMs do to reduce runtime reflection. If you're not familiar with hacking IL at runtime, I would recommend looking at a tool like "Sigil" (available on nuget) that makes it hard to get wrong (or at least: tells you what you've done wrong). Essentially, you can inspect the data structure and then emit the IL that matches what it would look like if you were doing it all in explicit code; for example, emitting IL that looks kinda like:
static readonly DecimalParserAttribute _decimal = new DecimalParserAttribute();
public static void Validate(Product product) {
var sb = new StringBuilder();
if(!_decimal.Parse(product.Weight)) {
sb.Append(...);
}
// ... etc
...,
}

Dynamic Linq queries for multiple runtime filters

I have a winforms app that basically loads a bunch of data from a database using entity framework and displays it on a gridview.
For this scenario, consider the entity bound to the gridview to be this one:
public class Person
{
public string name;
public string sex;
public int age;
}
I'd like to give the user the option to filter the results on the gridview by using a series of filters on which he could select the column he wants to filter (age, sex, name), the operator (greater than, equal, contains, etc.) and the value.
The filter class would be something like this:
public class filter
{
public string column;
public string operator;
public string value;
}
My question is: how can i apply those filters to the data being displayed on the gridview by using dynamically created linq queries?

Try using Expression trees to build lambdas dynamically against your data.
Here's an example implementation:
void Main()
{
var fieldName = "LastName";
var value = "test";
var db = new List<Person>() {
new Person() { name = "fred jones", sex = "male", age = 55 },
new Person() { name = "samantha jones", sex = "female", age = 45 },
new Person() { name = "cindy jones", sex = "female", age = 6 }
};
// single query
db.Where( Person.GetFilter("sex", "==", "female").Compile() ).Dump();
// OR example
db.Where(
PredicateBuilder.Or<Person>(
Person.GetFilter("sex", "==", "male"),
Person.GetFilter("age", "<", 50)
).Compile()
).Dump();
}
class Person
{
public string name;
public string sex;
public int age;
public static Expression<Func<Person,bool>> GetFilter<T>(string column, string #operator, T value)
{
var ops = new Dictionary<string, Func<Expression, Expression, Expression>>() {
{ "==", (x,y) => Expression.Equal(x,y) },
{ "<=", (x,y) => Expression.LessThanOrEqual(x,y) },
{ ">=", (x,y) => Expression.GreaterThanOrEqual(x,y) },
{ ">", (x,y) => Expression.GreaterThan(x,y) },
{ "<", (x,y) => Expression.LessThan(x,y) },
};
var param = Expression.Parameter(typeof(Person));
var deref = Expression.PropertyOrField(param, column);
var testval = Expression.Constant(value);
return Expression.Lambda<Func<Person,bool>>(
ops[#operator](deref, testval),
param);
}
}
Note I used Linqpad to test this so replace the .Dump() call with what's appropriate in your context for displaying data. It requires the PredicateBuilder class to build OR or AND statements. Also this will fail spectacularly if the wrong type is passed as the value parameter (string passed when comparing age, for example, throws "InvalidOperationException: The binary operator Equal is not defined for the types 'System.String' and 'System.Int32'.").
If anyone can tell me a better way to deal with turning a string representation of an operator into an Expression class, let me know, as I am not really happy with the above way, but it was the quickest I could think of at the time.

You might try using the Dynamic LINQ library:
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/01/07/dynamic-linq-part-1-using-the-linq-dynamic-query-library.aspx
Or you can conditionally add filters to your queries:
var dc = new MyDataContext(); // wrap with using block in production
var query = dc.MyTable.AsQueryable();
if(filter1)
query = query.Where(i=>i.Name.Contains(text));
if(filter2)
query = query.Where(i=>i.Age == age);

Can anonymous class implement interface?

Is it possible to have an anonymous type implement an interface?
I've got a piece of code that I would like to work, but don't know how to do this.
I've had a couple of answers that either say no, or create a class that implements the interface construct new instances of that. This isn't really ideal, but I'm wondering if there is a mechanism to create a thin dynamic class on top of an interface which would make this simple.
public interface DummyInterface
{
string A { get; }
string B { get; }
}
public class DummySource
{
public string A { get; set; }
public string C { get; set; }
public string D { get; set; }
}
public class Test
{
public void WillThisWork()
{
var source = new DummySource[0];
var values = from value in source
select new
{
A = value.A,
B = value.C + "_" + value.D
};
DoSomethingWithDummyInterface(values);
}
public void DoSomethingWithDummyInterface(IEnumerable<DummyInterface> values)
{
foreach (var value in values)
{
Console.WriteLine("A = '{0}', B = '{1}'", value.A, value.B);
}
}
}
I've found an article Dynamic interface wrapping that describes one approach. Is this the best way of doing this?

No, anonymous types cannot implement an interface. From the C# programming guide:
Anonymous types are class types that consist of one or more public read-only properties. No other kinds of class members such as methods or events are allowed. An anonymous type cannot be cast to any interface or type except for object.

While the answers in the thread are all true enough, I cannot resist the urge to tell you that it in fact is possible to have an anonymous class implement an interface, even though it takes a bit of creative cheating to get there.
Back in 2008 I was writing a custom LINQ provider for my then employer, and at one point I needed to be able to tell "my" anonymous classes from other anonymous ones, which meant having them implement an interface that I could use to type check them. The way we solved it was by using aspects (we used PostSharp), to add the interface implementation directly in the IL. So, in fact, letting anonymous classes implement interfaces is doable, you just need to bend the rules slightly to get there.

Casting anonymous types to interfaces has been something I've wanted for a while but unfortunately the current implementation forces you to have an implementation of that interface.
The best solution around it is having some type of dynamic proxy that creates the implementation for you. Using the excellent LinFu project you can replace
select new
{
A = value.A,
B = value.C + "_" + value.D
};
with
select new DynamicObject(new
{
A = value.A,
B = value.C + "_" + value.D
}).CreateDuck<DummyInterface>();

Anonymous types can implement interfaces via a dynamic proxy.
I wrote an extension method on GitHub and a blog post http://wblo.gs/feE to support this scenario.
The method can be used like this:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var developer = new { Name = "Jason Bowers" };
PrintDeveloperName(developer.DuckCast<IDeveloper>());
Console.ReadKey();
}
private static void PrintDeveloperName(IDeveloper developer)
{
Console.WriteLine(developer.Name);
}
}
public interface IDeveloper
{
string Name { get; }
}

No; an anonymous type can't be made to do anything except have a few properties. You will need to create your own type. I didn't read the linked article in depth, but it looks like it uses Reflection.Emit to create new types on the fly; but if you limit discussion to things within C# itself you can't do what you want.

The best solution is just not to use anonymous classes.
public class Test
{
class DummyInterfaceImplementor : IDummyInterface
{
public string A { get; set; }
public string B { get; set; }
}
public void WillThisWork()
{
var source = new DummySource[0];
var values = from value in source
select new DummyInterfaceImplementor()
{
A = value.A,
B = value.C + "_" + value.D
};
DoSomethingWithDummyInterface(values.Cast<IDummyInterface>());
}
public void DoSomethingWithDummyInterface(IEnumerable<IDummyInterface> values)
{
foreach (var value in values)
{
Console.WriteLine("A = '{0}', B = '{1}'", value.A, value.B);
}
}
}
Note that you need to cast the result of the query to the type of the interface. There might be a better way to do it, but I couldn't find it.

The answer to the question specifically asked is no. But have you been looking at mocking frameworks? I use MOQ but there's millions of them out there and they allow you to implement/stub (partially or fully) interfaces in-line. Eg.
public void ThisWillWork()
{
var source = new DummySource[0];
var mock = new Mock<DummyInterface>();
mock.SetupProperty(m => m.A, source.Select(s => s.A));
mock.SetupProperty(m => m.B, source.Select(s => s.C + "_" + s.D));
DoSomethingWithDummyInterface(mock.Object);
}

Another option is to create a single, concrete implementing class that takes lambdas in the constructor.
public interface DummyInterface
{
string A { get; }
string B { get; }
}
// "Generic" implementing class
public class Dummy : DummyInterface
{
private readonly Func<string> _getA;
private readonly Func<string> _getB;
public Dummy(Func<string> getA, Func<string> getB)
{
_getA = getA;
_getB = getB;
}
public string A => _getA();
public string B => _getB();
}
public class DummySource
{
public string A { get; set; }
public string C { get; set; }
public string D { get; set; }
}
public class Test
{
public void WillThisWork()
{
var source = new DummySource[0];
var values = from value in source
select new Dummy // Syntax changes slightly
(
getA: () => value.A,
getB: () => value.C + "_" + value.D
);
DoSomethingWithDummyInterface(values);
}
public void DoSomethingWithDummyInterface(IEnumerable<DummyInterface> values)
{
foreach (var value in values)
{
Console.WriteLine("A = '{0}', B = '{1}'", value.A, value.B);
}
}
}
If all you are ever going to do is convert DummySource to DummyInterface, then it would be simpler to just have one class that takes a DummySource in the constructor and implements the interface.
But, if you need to convert many types to DummyInterface, this is much less boiler plate.

Using Roslyn, you can dynamically create a class which inherits from an interface (or abstract class).
I use the following to create concrete classes from abstract classes.
In this example, AAnimal is an abstract class.
var personClass = typeof(AAnimal).CreateSubclass("Person");
Then you can instantiate some objects:
var person1 = Activator.CreateInstance(personClass);
var person2 = Activator.CreateInstance(personClass);
Without a doubt this won't work for every case, but it should be enough to get you started:
using Microsoft.CodeAnalysis;
using Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;
namespace Publisher
{
public static class Extensions
{
public static Type CreateSubclass(this Type baseType, string newClassName, string newNamespace = "Magic")
{
//todo: handle ref, out etc.
var concreteMethods = baseType
.GetMethods()
.Where(method => method.IsAbstract)
.Select(method =>
{
var parameters = method
.GetParameters()
.Select(param => $"{param.ParameterType.FullName} {param.Name}")
.ToString(", ");
var returnTypeStr = method.ReturnParameter.ParameterType.Name;
if (returnTypeStr.Equals("Void")) returnTypeStr = "void";
var methodString = #$"
public override {returnTypeStr} {method.Name}({parameters})
{{
Console.WriteLine(""{newNamespace}.{newClassName}.{method.Name}() was called"");
}}";
return methodString.Trim();
})
.ToList();
var concreteMethodsString = concreteMethods
.ToString(Environment.NewLine + Environment.NewLine);
var classCode = #$"
using System;
namespace {newNamespace}
{{
public class {newClassName}: {baseType.FullName}
{{
public {newClassName}()
{{
}}
{concreteMethodsString}
}}
}}
".Trim();
classCode = FormatUsingRoslyn(classCode);
/*
var assemblies = new[]
{
MetadataReference.CreateFromFile(typeof(object).Assembly.Location),
MetadataReference.CreateFromFile(baseType.Assembly.Location),
};
*/
var assemblies = AppDomain
.CurrentDomain
.GetAssemblies()
.Where(a => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(a.Location))
.Select(a => MetadataReference.CreateFromFile(a.Location))
.ToArray();
var syntaxTree = CSharpSyntaxTree.ParseText(classCode);
var compilation = CSharpCompilation
.Create(newNamespace)
.AddSyntaxTrees(syntaxTree)
.AddReferences(assemblies)
.WithOptions(new CSharpCompilationOptions(OutputKind.DynamicallyLinkedLibrary));
using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
{
var result = compilation.Emit(ms);
//compilation.Emit($"C:\\Temp\\{newNamespace}.dll");
if (result.Success)
{
ms.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
Assembly assembly = Assembly.Load(ms.ToArray());
var newTypeFullName = $"{newNamespace}.{newClassName}";
var type = assembly.GetType(newTypeFullName);
return type;
}
else
{
IEnumerable<Diagnostic> failures = result.Diagnostics.Where(diagnostic =>
diagnostic.IsWarningAsError ||
diagnostic.Severity == DiagnosticSeverity.Error);
foreach (Diagnostic diagnostic in failures)
{
Console.Error.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", diagnostic.Id, diagnostic.GetMessage());
}
return null;
}
}
}
public static string ToString(this IEnumerable<string> list, string separator)
{
string result = string.Join(separator, list);
return result;
}
public static string FormatUsingRoslyn(string csCode)
{
var tree = CSharpSyntaxTree.ParseText(csCode);
var root = tree.GetRoot().NormalizeWhitespace();
var result = root.ToFullString();
return result;
}
}
}