How do I build a dynamic Where clause with Dapper when passing in a model

Question

I have an example model that looks like this:

public class PersonModel
{
     public int Id {get; set;}
     public string FirstName {get; set;}
     public string Lastname {get; set;}
     public string City {get; set;}
}

In my repository I want to create a search method where I pass in my model - but not all fields will always be populated. I want to create a WHERE and AND based on if a field in the model is populated or not. If the field is not populated then I do not want to create a WHERE clause for it.

For example - if I pass in FirstName = "Bob" and City = "Boston" then I want my search to look like this:

SELECT * FROM PersonTable WHERE FirstName = @firstName AND City = @city

Since I did not pass in Id or LastName I don't want them added to the query. If I just pass in City = "Boston" then I want it to look like this:

SELECT * FROM PersonTable WHERE City = @city

My repo method would look something like this

using Dapper;
public List<PersonModel> Search(PersonModel model)
{
//db = DbConnection connection
    var selectSql = "SELECT * FROM PersonTable "; //build out where clause somehow
    return db.Query<PersonModel>(selectSql).ToList();
}

My question is how would I build this out in my repo method properly?

Answer 1

You can also use Dapper's SqlBuilder.

Note that you'll have to install the Dapper.SqlBuilder NuGet package since it doesn't come with Dapper's main distribution.

Here is an example:

    [Test]
    public void Test()
    {
        var model = new PersonModel {FirstName = "Bar", City = "New York"};

        var builder = new SqlBuilder();

        //note the 'where' in-line comment is required, it is a replacement token
        var selector = builder.AddTemplate("select * from table /**where**/");

        if (model.Id > 0)
            builder.Where("Id = @Id", new { model.Id });

        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(model.FirstName))
            builder.Where("FirstName = @FirstName", new { model.FirstName });

        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(model.Lastname))
            builder.Where("Lastname = @Lastname", new { model.Lastname });

        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(model.City))
            builder.Where("City = @City", new { model.City });

        Assert.That(selector.RawSql, Is.EqualTo("select * from table WHERE FirstName = @FirstName AND City = @City\n"));

        //var rows = sqlConnection.Query(selector.RawSql, selector.Parameters);
    }

You can find some examples here.