Retrieving Property name from lambda expression

I recently did a very similar thing to make a type safe OnPropertyChanged method.

Here's a method that'll return the PropertyInfo object for the expression. It throws an exception if the expression is not a property.

public PropertyInfo GetPropertyInfo<TSource, TProperty>(
    TSource source,
    Expression<Func<TSource, TProperty>> propertyLambda)
{
    Type type = typeof(TSource);

    MemberExpression member = propertyLambda.Body as MemberExpression;
    if (member == null)
        throw new ArgumentException(string.Format(
            "Expression '{0}' refers to a method, not a property.",
            propertyLambda.ToString()));

    PropertyInfo propInfo = member.Member as PropertyInfo;
    if (propInfo == null)
        throw new ArgumentException(string.Format(
            "Expression '{0}' refers to a field, not a property.",
            propertyLambda.ToString()));

    if (type != propInfo.ReflectedType &&
        !type.IsSubclassOf(propInfo.ReflectedType))
        throw new ArgumentException(string.Format(
            "Expression '{0}' refers to a property that is not from type {1}.",
            propertyLambda.ToString(),
            type));

    return propInfo;
}

The source parameter is used so the compiler can do type inference on the method call. You can do the following

var propertyInfo = GetPropertyInfo(someUserObject, u => u.UserID);

I found another way you can do it was to have the source and property strongly typed and explicitly infer the input for the lambda. Not sure if that is correct terminology but here is the result.

public static RouteValueDictionary GetInfo<T,P>(this HtmlHelper html, Expression<Func<T, P>> action) where T : class
{
    var expression = (MemberExpression)action.Body;
    string name = expression.Member.Name;

    return GetInfo(html, name);
}

And then call it like so.

GetInfo((User u) => u.UserId);

and voila it works.

With C# 7 pattern matching:

public static string GetMemberName<T>(this Expression<T> expression)
{
    switch (expression.Body)
    {
        case MemberExpression m:
            return m.Member.Name;
        case UnaryExpression u when u.Operand is MemberExpression m:
            return m.Member.Name;
        default:
            throw new NotImplementedException(expression.GetType().ToString());
    }
}

Example:

public static RouteValueDictionary GetInfo<T>(this HtmlHelper html, 
    Expression<Func<T, object>> action) where T : class
{
    var name = action.GetMemberName();
    return GetInfo(html, name);
}

[Update] C# 8 pattern matching:

public static string GetMemberName<T>(this Expression<T> expression) =>
    expression.Body switch
    {
        MemberExpression m =>
            m.Member.Name,
        UnaryExpression u when u.Operand is MemberExpression m =>
            m.Member.Name,
        _ =>
            throw new    NotImplementedException(expression.GetType().ToString())
    };

Well, there's no need to call .Name.ToString(), but broadly that is about it, yes. The only consideration you might need is whether x.Foo.Bar should return "Foo", "Bar", or an exception - i.e. do you need to iterate at all.

(re comment) for more on flexible sorting, see here.

This might be optimal

public static string GetPropertyName<TResult>(Expression<Func<TResult>> expr)
{
    var memberAccess = expr.Body as MemberExpression;
    var propertyInfo = memberAccess?.Member as PropertyInfo;
    var propertyName = propertyInfo?.Name;

    return propertyName;
}

I created an extension method on ObjectStateEntry to be able to flag properties (of Entity Framework POCO classes) as modified in a type safe manner, since the default method only accepts a string. Here's my way of getting the name from the property:

public static void SetModifiedProperty<T>(this System.Data.Objects.ObjectStateEntry state, Expression<Func<T>> action)
{
    var body = (MemberExpression)action.Body;
    string propertyName = body.Member.Name;

    state.SetModifiedProperty(propertyName);
}

GetPropetyAccess() is available if you can refer efcore.

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Infrastructure;

var propertyInfo = lambda.GetPropetyAccess(); //PropertyInfo
var propertyName = propertyInfo.Name;

Starting with .NET 4.0 you can use ExpressionVisitor to find properties:

class ExprVisitor : ExpressionVisitor {
    public bool IsFound { get; private set; }
    public string MemberName { get; private set; }
    public Type MemberType { get; private set; }
    protected override Expression VisitMember(MemberExpression node) {
        if (!IsFound && node.Member.MemberType == MemberTypes.Property) {
            IsFound = true;
            MemberName = node.Member.Name;
            MemberType = node.Type;
        }
        return base.VisitMember(node);
    }
}

Here is how you use this visitor:

var visitor = new ExprVisitor();
visitor.Visit(expr);
if (visitor.IsFound) {
    Console.WriteLine("First property in the expression tree: Name={0}, Type={1}", visitor.MemberName, visitor.MemberType.FullName);
} else {
    Console.WriteLine("No properties found.");
}

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var prop = GetPropertyInfo<MyDto>(_ => _.MyProperty);

    MyDto dto = new MyDto();
    dto.MyProperty = 666;

    var value = prop.GetValue(dto);
    // value == 666
}

class MyDto
{
    public int MyProperty { get; set; }
}

public static PropertyInfo GetPropertyInfo<TSource>(Expression<Func<TSource, object>> propertyLambda)
{
    Type type = typeof(TSource);

    var member = propertyLambda.Body as MemberExpression;
    if (member == null)
    {
        var unary = propertyLambda.Body as UnaryExpression;
        if (unary != null)
        {
            member = unary.Operand as MemberExpression;
        }
    }
    if (member == null)
    {
        throw new ArgumentException(string.Format("Expression '{0}' refers to a method, not a property.",
            propertyLambda.ToString()));
    }

    var propInfo = member.Member as PropertyInfo;
    if (propInfo == null)
    {
        throw new ArgumentException(string.Format("Expression '{0}' refers to a field, not a property.",
            propertyLambda.ToString()));
    }

    if (type != propInfo.ReflectedType && !type.IsSubclassOf(propInfo.ReflectedType))
    {
        throw new ArgumentException(string.Format("Expression '{0}' refers to a property that is not from type {1}.",
            propertyLambda.ToString(), type));
    }

    return propInfo;
}

Assuming (TModel as class)

Expression<Func<TModel, TValue>> expression

retrieve the property's name with

expression.GetPropertyInfo().Name;

The extension function:

public static PropertyInfo GetPropertyInfo<TType, TReturn>(this Expression<Func<TType, TReturn>> property)
{
  LambdaExpression lambda = property;
  var memberExpression = lambda.Body is UnaryExpression expression
      ? (MemberExpression)expression.Operand
      : (MemberExpression)lambda.Body;

  return (PropertyInfo)memberExpression.Member;
}