How do I create a delegate for a .NET property?

Re the problem using AddressOf - if you know the prop-name at compile time, you can (in C#, at least) use an anon-method / lambda:

Test t = delegate { return e.PropertyName; }; // C# 2.0
Test t = () => e.PropertyName; // C# 3.0

I'm not a VB expert, but reflector claims this is the same as:

Dim t As Test = Function 
    Return e.PropertyName
End Function

Does that work?

Original answer:

You create delegates for properties with Delegate.CreateDelegate; this can be open for any instance of the type, of fixed for a single instance - and can be for getter or setter; I'll give an example in C#...

using System;
using System.Reflection;
class Foo
{
    public string Bar { get; set; }
}
class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        PropertyInfo prop = typeof(Foo).GetProperty("Bar");
        Foo foo = new Foo();

        // create an open "getter" delegate
        Func<Foo, string> getForAnyFoo = (Func<Foo, string>)
            Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<Foo, string>), null,
                prop.GetGetMethod());

        Func<string> getForFixedFoo = (Func<string>)
            Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<string>), foo,
                prop.GetGetMethod());

        Action<Foo,string> setForAnyFoo = (Action<Foo,string>)
            Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Action<Foo, string>), null,
                prop.GetSetMethod());

        Action<string> setForFixedFoo = (Action<string>)
            Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Action<string>), foo,
                prop.GetSetMethod());

        setForAnyFoo(foo, "abc");
        Console.WriteLine(getForAnyFoo(foo));
        setForFixedFoo("def");
        Console.WriteLine(getForFixedFoo());
    }
}

I just create an helper with pretty good performance : http://thibaud60.blogspot.com/2010/10/fast-property-accessor-without-dynamic.html It don't use IL / Emit approach and it is very fast !

Edit by oscilatingcretin 2015/10/23

The source contains some casing issues and peculiar ="" that have to be removed. Before link rot sets in, I thought I'd post a cleaned-up version of the source for easy copy pasta, as well as an example of how to use it.

Revised source

using System;
using System.Collections.Concurrent;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Reflection;

namespace Tools.Reflection
{
    public interface IPropertyAccessor
    {
        PropertyInfo PropertyInfo { get; }
        object GetValue(object source);
        void SetValue(object source, object value);
    }

    public static class PropertyInfoHelper
    {
        private static ConcurrentDictionary<PropertyInfo, IPropertyAccessor> _cache =
            new ConcurrentDictionary<PropertyInfo, IPropertyAccessor>();

        public static IPropertyAccessor GetAccessor(PropertyInfo propertyInfo)
        {
            IPropertyAccessor result = null;
            if (!_cache.TryGetValue(propertyInfo, out result))
            {
                result = CreateAccessor(propertyInfo);
                _cache.TryAdd(propertyInfo, result); ;
            }
            return result;
        }

        public static IPropertyAccessor CreateAccessor(PropertyInfo PropertyInfo)
        {
            var GenType = typeof(PropertyWrapper<,>)
                .MakeGenericType(PropertyInfo.DeclaringType, PropertyInfo.PropertyType);
            return (IPropertyAccessor)Activator.CreateInstance(GenType, PropertyInfo);
        }
    }

    internal class PropertyWrapper<TObject, TValue> : IPropertyAccessor where TObject : class
    {
        private Func<TObject, TValue> Getter;
        private Action<TObject, TValue> Setter;

        public PropertyWrapper(PropertyInfo PropertyInfo)
        {
            this.PropertyInfo = PropertyInfo;

            MethodInfo GetterInfo = PropertyInfo.GetGetMethod(true);
            MethodInfo SetterInfo = PropertyInfo.GetSetMethod(true);

            Getter = (Func<TObject, TValue>)Delegate.CreateDelegate
                    (typeof(Func<TObject, TValue>), GetterInfo);
            Setter = (Action<TObject, TValue>)Delegate.CreateDelegate
                    (typeof(Action<TObject, TValue>), SetterInfo);
        }

        object IPropertyAccessor.GetValue(object source)
        {
            return Getter(source as TObject);
        }

        void IPropertyAccessor.SetValue(object source, object value)
        {
            Setter(source as TObject, (TValue)value);
        }

        public PropertyInfo PropertyInfo { get; private set; }
    }
}

Use it like this:

public class MyClass
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
    public int Age { get; set; }
}

MyClass e = new MyClass();
IPropertyAccessor[] Accessors = e.GetType().GetProperties()
    .Select(pi => PropertyInfoHelper.CreateAccessor(pi)).ToArray();

foreach (var Accessor in Accessors)
{
    Type pt = Accessor.PropertyInfo.PropertyType;
    if (pt == typeof(string))
        Accessor.SetValue(e, Guid.NewGuid().ToString("n").Substring(0, 9));
    else if (pt == typeof(int))
        Accessor.SetValue(e, new Random().Next(0, int.MaxValue));

    Console.WriteLine(string.Format("{0}:{1}",
        Accessor.PropertyInfo.Name, Accessor.GetValue(e)));
}

Here is a C#/.NET 2.0 version of Marc Gravell's response:

using System;
using System.Reflection;

class Program
{
 private delegate void SetValue<T>(T value);
 private delegate T GetValue<T>();

 private class Foo
 {
  private string _bar;

  public string Bar
  {
   get { return _bar; }
   set { _bar = value; }
  }
 }

 static void Main()
 {
  Foo foo = new Foo();
  Type type = typeof (Foo);
  PropertyInfo property = type.GetProperty("Bar");

  // setter
  MethodInfo methodInfo = property.GetSetMethod();
  SetValue<string> setValue =
   (SetValue<string>) Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof (SetValue<string>), foo, methodInfo);
  setValue("abc");

  // getter
  methodInfo = property.GetGetMethod();
  GetValue<string> getValue =
   (GetValue<string>) Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof (GetValue<string>), foo, methodInfo);
  string myValue = getValue();

  // output results
  Console.WriteLine(myValue);
 }
}

Again, 'Delegate.CreateDelegate' is what is fundamental to this example.

This is good idea

Test t = () => e.PropertyName; // C# 3.0

But take care if your are doing something like this:

List<Func<int>> funcs = new List<Func<int>>();
foreach (var e in Collection)
   funcs.Add(new Func<int>(() => e.Property));

Calling this:

foreach(var f in funcs)
   f();

Will always return value of property of the last object in Collection

In this case you should call method:

foreach (var e in Collection)
   funcs.Add(new Func<int>(e.GetPropValue));