Linq - Dynamic GroupBy with IEnumerable

Question

I have a collection that is IEnumerable<Transaction>. Transaction has several properties such as TransactionId (Int64), PaymentMethod(string) and TransactionDate(DateTime)

I'd like to be able to accomplish this transactions.GroupBy(x => x.PaymentMethod) dynamically at run time based on whatever grouping field the user has decided to use.

I found most of the answer I'm looking for in dtb's answer here Linq GroupBy - how to specify the grouping key at runtime?

This works well:

        var arg = Expression.Parameter( typeof( Transaction ), "transaction" );
        var body = Expression.Property( arg, "PaymentMethod" );
        var lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<Transaction, string>>( body, arg );
        var keySelector = lambda.Compile();

        var groups = transactions.GroupBy( keySelector );

Except that I don't know the type of the return type of the Func in Expression.Lambda<Func<Transaction, string>>. It's string in this example, but it might be Int64, decimal, DateTime, etc. I can't use Object as the return type because I might have value types.

I've been reading lots of SO posts and most of them seem to apply to IQueryable and LinqToSQL.

Using the Expression class seems like a good way to accomplish this, but is there a way to do it when I don't know either the name or datatype of my group parameter at compile time?

I appreciate any nudge in the right direction.

Edit:

Using Polity's solution below, I created an extension method that does what I've been trying to do:

    public static IEnumerable<IGrouping<object, T>> GroupBy<T>( this IEnumerable<T> items, string groupByProperty )
    {

        var arg = Expression.Parameter( typeof(T), "item" );
        var body = Expression.Convert( Expression.Property( arg, groupByProperty ), typeof( object ) );
        var lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<T, object>>( body, arg );
        var keySelector = lambda.Compile();

        var groups = items.GroupBy( keySelector );
        return groups;
    } 

Thanks to Polity and everyone who answered!

Answer 1

Following up on the answer of ojlovecd.

According to the one asking he needs functionality at runtime. Generics and Runtime arent the easiest mix. That is no problem though since you can just threat the return value as an object which makes the non-generic variant of the method provided by ojlovecd something like:

static IEnumerable<IGrouping<object,Transaction>> GroupBy(string propName) 
{ 
    List<Transaction> transactions = new List<Transaction>  
    { 
        new Transaction{ PaymentMethod="AA", SomeDateTime=DateTime.Now.AddDays(-1), SomeDecimal=1.2M, SomeInt64=1000}, 
        new Transaction{ PaymentMethod="BB", SomeDateTime=DateTime.Now.AddDays(-2), SomeDecimal=3.4M, SomeInt64=2000}, 
        new Transaction{ PaymentMethod="AA", SomeDateTime=DateTime.Now.AddDays(-1), SomeDecimal=3.4M, SomeInt64=3000}, 
        new Transaction{ PaymentMethod="CC", SomeDateTime=DateTime.Now.AddDays(2), SomeDecimal=5.6M, SomeInt64=1000}, 
    }; 
    var arg = Expression.Parameter(typeof(Transaction), "transaction"); 
    var body = Expression.Convert(Expression.Property(arg, propName), typeof(object)); 
    var lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<Transaction, object>>(body, arg); 
    var keySelector = lambda.Compile(); 

    var groups = transactions.GroupBy(keySelector); 
    return groups; 
} 

Answer 2

the following codes are what I mean, hoping they are helpful:

static void Main(string[] args)
{

    var query = GroupBy<string>("PaymentMethod");
    foreach (var group in query)
        Console.WriteLine(group.Key + "," + group.Count());
    var query2 = GroupBy<long>("SomeInt64");
    foreach (var group in query2)
        Console.WriteLine(group.Key + "," + group.Count());
}

static IEnumerable<IGrouping<T,Transaction>> GroupBy<T>(string propName)
{
    List<Transaction> transactions = new List<Transaction> 
    {
        new Transaction{ PaymentMethod="AA", SomeDateTime=DateTime.Now.AddDays(-1), SomeDecimal=1.2M, SomeInt64=1000},
        new Transaction{ PaymentMethod="BB", SomeDateTime=DateTime.Now.AddDays(-2), SomeDecimal=3.4M, SomeInt64=2000},
        new Transaction{ PaymentMethod="AA", SomeDateTime=DateTime.Now.AddDays(-1), SomeDecimal=3.4M, SomeInt64=3000},
        new Transaction{ PaymentMethod="CC", SomeDateTime=DateTime.Now.AddDays(2), SomeDecimal=5.6M, SomeInt64=1000},
    };
    var arg = Expression.Parameter(typeof(Transaction), "transaction");
    var body = Expression.Property(arg, propName);
    var lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<Transaction, T>>(body, arg);
    var keySelector = lambda.Compile();

    var groups = transactions.GroupBy(keySelector);
    return groups;
}

    class Transaction
    {
        public string PaymentMethod { get; set; }
        public Int64 SomeInt64 { get; set; }
        public decimal SomeDecimal { get; set; }
        public DateTime SomeDateTime { get; set; }
    }

Answer 3

You will have to construct the delegate type and use Expression.Call() and finally execute the GroupBy using DynamicInvoke() if you do not know the target type at compile time - this works for me:

var arg = Expression.Parameter(typeof(Transaction), "transaction");
var body = Expression.Property(arg, "PaymentMethod");

var delegateType = typeof(Func<,>).MakeGenericType(typeof(Transaction), body.Type);
var lambda = Expression.Lambda(delegateType, body, arg);
var source = Expression.Parameter(typeof(IEnumerable<Transaction>), "source");
var groupByExpression = Expression.Call(typeof(Enumerable), "GroupBy", 
                                        new Type[] { typeof(Transaction), body.Type }, 
                                        source, lambda);
var groupByLambda = Expression.Lambda(groupByExpression, source).Compile();

var groups = groupByLambda.DynamicInvoke(transactions);

Since at this point you cannot use any other Linq extension methods without converting them to expressions as well (at least as far as I understand it) the benefit is doubtful, so I personally probably would go with one of the other options presented.