C# Expression to sort generic query by key field

Question

I have a generic method in which I want to sort an IQueryable<T> by its key field (it is safe to assume there is only one). Thus:

void DoStuff<T>(...) 
{
   IQueryable<T> queryable = ... // given
   PropertyInfo keyField = ... // given
   var sortedQueryable = queryable.OrderBy(<some expression here>);
   ...
}

How do I define an Expression that will return the keyField property of T so that this will work?

Answer 1

This isn't too difficult, but you need to invoke the OrderBy with reflection as you don't know the type of the key field ahead of time. So given the code you already show, you would do something like this:

// Build up the property expression to pass into the OrderBy method
var parameterExp = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "x");
var propertyExp = Expression.Property(parameterExp, keyField);
var orderByExp = Expression.Lambda(propertyExp, parameterExp);

// Note here you can output "orderByExp.ToString()" which will give you this:
//  x => x.NameOfProperty

// Now call the OrderBy via reflection, you can decide here if you want 
// "OrderBy" or "OrderByDescending"
var orderByMethodGeneric = typeof(Queryable)
    .GetMethods()
    .Single(mi => mi.Name == "OrderBy" && mi.GetParameters().Length == 2);

var orderByMethod = orderByMethodGeneric.MakeGenericMethod(typeof(T), propertyExp.Type);

// Get the result
var sortedQueryable = (IQueryable<T>)orderByMethod
    .Invoke(null, new object[] { queryable, orderByExp });