Dynamic Column Name in LinQ

dynamic, linq, list

Solution

Easy, just select the property you need from the list:

var items = new List<Item>();
//get names
var names = items.Select(x => x.Name);
//get descriptions
var descriptions = items.Select(x => x.Description);

Update:

You'll need a bit of reflection to do this:

var names = items.Select(x => x.GetType().GetProperty("Name").GetValue(x));

Throw this in a method for re-usability:

public IEnumerable<object> GetColumn(List<Item> items, string columnName)
{
    var values = items.Select(x => x.GetType().GetProperty(columnName).GetValue(x));
    return values;
}

Of course this doesn't validate wether the column exists in the object. So it will throw a `NullReferenceException` when it doesn't. It returns an `IEnumerable<object>`, so you'll have to call `ToString()` on each object afterwards to get the value or call the `ToString()` in the query right after `GetValue(x)`:

public IEnumerable<string> GetColumn(List<Item> items, string columnName)
{
    var values = items.Select(x => x.GetType().GetProperty(columnName).GetValue(x).ToString());
    return values;
}

Usage:

var items = new List<Item>(); //fill it up
var result = GetColumn(items, "Name");

Problem

I am having a class Item. ``` class Item{ public int Id { get; set; } public DateTime CreatedDate { get; set; } public string Name { get; set; } public string Description { get; set;} } ``` I want to filter list of items based on dynamic column name. Suppose I want list of Names then Column Name is "Name" and result will be list of names If column name is Description, I need list of descriptions. How to do this with LinQ?

Original source