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.

I was playing around with the same thing and worked this up. It's not fully tested but seems to handle the issue with value types (the unaryexpression issue you ran into)

public static string GetName(Expression<Func<object>> exp)
{
    MemberExpression body = exp.Body as MemberExpression;

    if (body == null) {
       UnaryExpression ubody = (UnaryExpression)exp.Body;
       body = ubody.Operand as MemberExpression;
    }

    return body.Member.Name;
}

public string GetName<TSource, TField>(Expression<Func<TSource, TField>> Field)
{
    return (Field.Body as MemberExpression ?? ((UnaryExpression)Field.Body).Operand as MemberExpression).Member.Name;
}

This handles member and unary expressions. The difference being that you will get a UnaryExpression if your expression represents a value type whereas you will get a MemberExpression if your expression represents a reference type. Everything can be cast to an object, but value types must be boxed. This is why the UnaryExpression exists. Reference.

For the sakes of readability (@Jowen), here's an expanded equivalent:

public string GetName<TSource, TField>(Expression<Func<TSource, TField>> Field)
{
    if (object.Equals(Field, null))
    {
        throw new NullReferenceException("Field is required");
    }

    MemberExpression expr = null;

    if (Field.Body is MemberExpression)
    {
        expr = (MemberExpression)Field.Body;
    }
    else if (Field.Body is UnaryExpression)
    {
        expr = (MemberExpression)((UnaryExpression)Field.Body).Operand;
    }
    else
    {
        const string Format = "Expression '{0}' not supported.";
        string message = string.Format(Format, Field);

        throw new ArgumentException(message, "Field");
    }

    return expr.Member.Name;
}

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())
    };