Problem
The following is a condensed version of the original issue.
Person: I have a class called Person: I have a class called Person: I have a class
public class Person {
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Age { get; set; }
public int Weight { get; set; }
public DateTime FavouriteDay { get; set; }
}
Let’s take a look at a hypothetical situation:
var bob = new Person {
Name = "Bob",
Age = 30,
Weight = 213,
FavouriteDay = '1/1/2000'
}
In my favorite text editor, I’d want to write the following as a string….
(Person.Age > 3 AND Person.Weight > 50) OR Person.Age < 3
I’d like to evaluate a TRUE or FALSE using this string and my object instance, i.e. using a FuncPerson, bool> on the object instance.
Here’s what I’m thinking now:
I’m wondering if I’ve completely overbaked this. Are there any other options?
I choose to work with the Dynamic Linq Library, notably the Dynamic Query class from the LINQSamples.
Code below:
using System;
using System.Linq.Expressions;
using System.Linq.Dynamic;
namespace ExpressionParser
{
class Program
{
public class Person
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Age { get; set; }
public int Weight { get; set; }
public DateTime FavouriteDay { get; set; }
}
static void Main()
{
const string exp = @"(Person.Age > 3 AND Person.Weight > 50) OR Person.Age < 3";
var p = Expression.Parameter(typeof(Person), "Person");
var e = System.Linq.Dynamic.DynamicExpression.ParseLambda(new[] { p }, null, exp);
var bob = new Person
{
Name = "Bob",
Age = 30,
Weight = 213,
FavouriteDay = new DateTime(2000,1,1)
};
var result = e.Compile().DynamicInvoke(bob);
Console.WriteLine(result);
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
The type of the result is System. TRUE is a Boolean value in this case.
Marc Gravell deserves special thanks.
Include the Nuget package System.Linq.Dynamic (description here).
Asked by Codebrain
Solution #1
Would the dynamic linq library be useful in this case? I’m specifically considering it as a Where clause. Put it in a list/array if necessary only to call. It has a where(string) on it! i.e.
var people = new List<Person> { person };
int match = people.Where(filter).Any();
If not, developing a parser (using Expression behind the hood) isn’t difficult – I created one similar (though I don’t recall the source) on my train ride just before Christmas…
Answered by Marc Gravell
Solution #2
Flee is another such library.
I ran a brief comparison between Dynamic Linq Library and Flee, and found that Flee was 10 times faster for the statement “(Name ==”Johan” AND Salary > 500) OR (Name!=”Johan” AND Salary > 300)”
This is how you can use Flee to create your code.
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var context = new ExpressionContext();
const string exp = @"(Person.Age > 3 AND Person.Weight > 50) OR Person.Age < 3";
context.Variables.DefineVariable("Person", typeof(Person));
var e = context.CompileDynamic(exp);
var bob = new Person
{
Name = "Bob",
Age = 30,
Weight = 213,
FavouriteDay = new DateTime(2000, 1, 1)
};
context.Variables["Person"] = bob;
var result = e.Evaluate();
Console.WriteLine(result);
Console.ReadKey();
}
Answered by chikak
Solution #3
void Main()
{
var testdata = new List<Ownr> {
//new Ownr{Name = "abc", Qty = 20}, // uncomment this to see it getting filtered out
new Ownr{Name = "abc", Qty = 2},
new Ownr{Name = "abcd", Qty = 11},
new Ownr{Name = "xyz", Qty = 40},
new Ownr{Name = "ok", Qty = 5},
};
Expression<Func<Ownr, bool>> func = Extentions.strToFunc<Ownr>("Qty", "<=", "10");
func = Extentions.strToFunc<Ownr>("Name", "==", "abc", func);
var result = testdata.Where(func.ExpressionToFunc()).ToList();
result.Dump();
}
public class Ownr
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Qty { get; set; }
}
public static class Extentions
{
public static Expression<Func<T, bool>> strToFunc<T>(string propName, string opr, string value, Expression<Func<T, bool>> expr = null)
{
Expression<Func<T, bool>> func = null;
try
{
var type = typeof(T);
var prop = type.GetProperty(propName);
ParameterExpression tpe = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T));
Expression left = Expression.Property(tpe, prop);
Expression right = Expression.Convert(ToExprConstant(prop, value), prop.PropertyType);
Expression<Func<T, bool>> innerExpr = Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(ApplyFilter(opr, left, right), tpe);
if (expr != null)
innerExpr = innerExpr.And(expr);
func = innerExpr;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
ex.Dump();
}
return func;
}
private static Expression ToExprConstant(PropertyInfo prop, string value)
{
object val = null;
try
{
switch (prop.Name)
{
case "System.Guid":
val = Guid.NewGuid();
break;
default:
{
val = Convert.ChangeType(value, prop.PropertyType);
break;
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
ex.Dump();
}
return Expression.Constant(val);
}
private static BinaryExpression ApplyFilter(string opr, Expression left, Expression right)
{
BinaryExpression InnerLambda = null;
switch (opr)
{
case "==":
case "=":
InnerLambda = Expression.Equal(left, right);
break;
case "<":
InnerLambda = Expression.LessThan(left, right);
break;
case ">":
InnerLambda = Expression.GreaterThan(left, right);
break;
case ">=":
InnerLambda = Expression.GreaterThanOrEqual(left, right);
break;
case "<=":
InnerLambda = Expression.LessThanOrEqual(left, right);
break;
case "!=":
InnerLambda = Expression.NotEqual(left, right);
break;
case "&&":
InnerLambda = Expression.And(left, right);
break;
case "||":
InnerLambda = Expression.Or(left, right);
break;
}
return InnerLambda;
}
public static Expression<Func<T, TResult>> And<T, TResult>(this Expression<Func<T, TResult>> expr1, Expression<Func<T, TResult>> expr2)
{
var invokedExpr = Expression.Invoke(expr2, expr1.Parameters.Cast<Expression>());
return Expression.Lambda<Func<T, TResult>>(Expression.AndAlso(expr1.Body, invokedExpr), expr1.Parameters);
}
public static Func<T, TResult> ExpressionToFunc<T, TResult>(this Expression<Func<T, TResult>> expr)
{
var res = expr.Compile();
return res;
}
}
The Dump() method is available in LinqPad.
Answered by suneelsarraf
Solution #4
You might want to check out the DLR. It lets you analyze and run scripts from within a.NET 2.0 application. Here’s an example of IronRuby in action:
using System;
using IronRuby;
using IronRuby.Runtime;
using Microsoft.Scripting.Hosting;
class App
{
static void Main()
{
var setup = new ScriptRuntimeSetup();
setup.LanguageSetups.Add(
new LanguageSetup(
typeof(RubyContext).AssemblyQualifiedName,
"IronRuby",
new[] { "IronRuby" },
new[] { ".rb" }
)
);
var runtime = new ScriptRuntime(setup);
var engine = runtime.GetEngine("IronRuby");
var ec = Ruby.GetExecutionContext(runtime);
ec.DefineGlobalVariable("bob", new Person
{
Name = "Bob",
Age = 30,
Weight = 213,
FavouriteDay = "1/1/2000"
});
var eval = engine.Execute<bool>(
"return ($bob.Age > 3 && $bob.Weight > 50) || $bob.Age < 3"
);
Console.WriteLine(eval);
}
}
public class Person
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Age { get; set; }
public int Weight { get; set; }
public string FavouriteDay { get; set; }
}
Of course, because this method relies on runtime evaluation, code cannot be validated at compile time.
Answered by Darin Dimitrov
Solution #5
A Scala DSL-based parser combinator for parsing and evaluating arithmetic expressions is shown below.
import scala.util.parsing.combinator._
/**
* @author Nicolae Caralicea
* @version 1.0, 04/01/2013
*/
class Arithm extends JavaTokenParsers {
def expr: Parser[List[String]] = term ~ rep(addTerm | minusTerm) ^^
{ case termValue ~ repValue => termValue ::: repValue.flatten }
def addTerm: Parser[List[String]] = "+" ~ term ^^
{ case "+" ~ termValue => termValue ::: List("+") }
def minusTerm: Parser[List[String]] = "-" ~ term ^^
{ case "-" ~ termValue => termValue ::: List("-") }
def term: Parser[List[String]] = factor ~ rep(multiplyFactor | divideFactor) ^^
{
case factorValue1 ~ repfactor => factorValue1 ::: repfactor.flatten
}
def multiplyFactor: Parser[List[String]] = "*" ~ factor ^^
{ case "*" ~ factorValue => factorValue ::: List("*") }
def divideFactor: Parser[List[String]] = "/" ~ factor ^^
{ case "/" ~ factorValue => factorValue ::: List("/") }
def factor: Parser[List[String]] = floatingPointConstant | parantExpr
def floatingPointConstant: Parser[List[String]] = floatingPointNumber ^^
{
case value => List[String](value)
}
def parantExpr: Parser[List[String]] = "(" ~ expr ~ ")" ^^
{
case "(" ~ exprValue ~ ")" => exprValue
}
def evaluateExpr(expression: String): Double = {
val parseRes = parseAll(expr, expression)
if (parseRes.successful) evaluatePostfix(parseRes.get)
else throw new RuntimeException(parseRes.toString())
}
private def evaluatePostfix(postfixExpressionList: List[String]): Double = {
import scala.collection.immutable.Stack
def multiply(a: Double, b: Double) = a * b
def divide(a: Double, b: Double) = a / b
def add(a: Double, b: Double) = a + b
def subtract(a: Double, b: Double) = a - b
def executeOpOnStack(stack: Stack[Any], operation: (Double, Double) => Double): (Stack[Any], Double) = {
val el1 = stack.top
val updatedStack1 = stack.pop
val el2 = updatedStack1.top
val updatedStack2 = updatedStack1.pop
val value = operation(el2.toString.toDouble, el1.toString.toDouble)
(updatedStack2.push(operation(el2.toString.toDouble, el1.toString.toDouble)), value)
}
val initial: (Stack[Any], Double) = (Stack(), null.asInstanceOf[Double])
val res = postfixExpressionList.foldLeft(initial)((computed, item) =>
item match {
case "*" => executeOpOnStack(computed._1, multiply)
case "/" => executeOpOnStack(computed._1, divide)
case "+" => executeOpOnStack(computed._1, add)
case "-" => executeOpOnStack(computed._1, subtract)
case other => (computed._1.push(other), computed._2)
})
res._2
}
}
object TestArithmDSL {
def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
val arithm = new Arithm
val actual = arithm.evaluateExpr("(12 + 4 * 6) * ((2 + 3 * ( 4 + 2 ) ) * ( 5 + 12 ))")
val expected: Double = (12 + 4 * 6) * ((2 + 3 * ( 4 + 2 ) ) * ( 5 + 12 ))
assert(actual == expected)
}
}
The Parser[List[String]] type would be the corresponding expression tree or parse tree of the specified arithmetic expression.
The following link has more information:
http://nicolaecaralicea.blogspot.ca/2013/04/scala-dsl-for-parsing-and-evaluating-of.html
Answered by ncaralicea
Post is based on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/821365/how-to-convert-a-string-to-its-equivalent-linq-expression-tree