[Solved] Get property name from entity to use in custom sorting

[Mattias]

Hi,
This is not exactly a telerik question but maybe you guys can help me out! :)
I have this code:

[GridAction]
        public ActionResult Index(GridCommand command)
        {
            MenuRepository rep = new MenuRepository();

            List<System.Linq.Expressions.Expression<Func<Menu, object>>> expressions = new List<System.Linq.Expressions.Expression<Func<Menu, object>>>();
            List<System.Linq.Expressions.Expression<Func<Menu, object>>> expressionsDesc = new List<System.Linq.Expressions.Expression<Func<Menu, object>>>();

            //Apply sorting
            foreach (SortDescriptor sortDescriptor in command.SortDescriptors)
            {
                if (sortDescriptor.SortDirection == ListSortDirection.Ascending)
                {
                    switch (sortDescriptor.Member)
                    {
                        case "Name":
                            expressions.Add(m => m.Name);
                            break;
                        default:
                             expressions.Add(m => m.Name);
                            break;
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    switch (sortDescriptor.Member)
                    {
                        case "Name":
                            expressionsDesc.Add(m => m.Name);
                            break;
                        default:
                            expressions.Add(m => m.Name);
                            break;
                    }
                }
            }

            int totalPages = 0;

            IEnumerable<Menu> menus = rep.GetPagedMenus<Menu>(null, null, expressions, expressionsDesc, command.Page, command.PageSize, out totalPages);

            ViewData["total"] = totalPages;

            return View(menus);
        }

It's the sorting part I'm wondering about.
If I have a lot of columns in my grid then I would need to add a huge number of cases in the switch.
Is it possible to do something like:

//Apply sorting
foreach (SortDescriptor sortDescriptor in command.SortDescriptors)
{
    if (sortDescriptor.SortDirection == ListSortDirection.Ascending)
    {
         expressions.Add(m => m.GetProperty(sortDescriptor.Member));
    }
    else
    {
         expressionsDesc.Add(m => m.GetProperty(sortDescriptor.Member));
    }
}

Is it possible to add a GetProperty method somehow or is there another way to solve this?

Regards,
Mattias

[Atanas Korchev]

Hi Mattias,

This is not possible however you can create an Expression and pass it to the OrderBy method. We have a class that you can use if you know the type of the property:

data = data.OrderBy(ExpressionBuilder.Expression<Order, string>(sortDescriptor.Member));

If the property type is not known you can use dynamic linq.
Regards,
Atanas Korchev,
the Telerik team