Building LINQ queries

Question

Has anybody evaluated this codeplex project?

Are there any limits (or bugs or exceptions) when using queryBuilder.Query?

It would save much of my time instead of using other LINQ variants.

Answer 1

I have not seen this project before, but it looks like it is just compiling the C# query into a dynamic assembly using CodeDOM. Here is a blog post on how it works:

http://kenanbek.com/site/post/dynamic-linq-queries-build-linq-queries-from-text-at-runtime/

If it is using dynamic compilation then it probably does not have many limitations. It will only be able to access items off the object you pass into the LinqTextQueryBuilder.SetSource() method, of course.

I am using something similar called Dynamic Linq in a project I work on, but it is more for parsing where clause expressions and the like rather than than entire queries. It works slightly different in that it parses a C#-like expression directly into an expression tree, rather than using CodeDOM and a dynamic assembly as an intermediary. Therefore, it is probably a bit faster, but more limited.

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/01/07/dynamic-linq-part-1-using-the-linq-dynamic-query-library.aspx

Answer 2

Depending on scenario, the AsExpandable and PredicateBuilder parts of LINQKit are very useful as well in my experience.

http://www.albahari.com/nutshell/linqkit.aspx