Can I reuse code for selecting a custom DTO object for a child property with EF Core?

Question

When querying using Entity Framework Core, I am using expressions to convert to DTO objects, which works well for the object, and any child collections.

A simplified example:

Model:

public class Model
{
    public int ModelId { get; set; }
    public string ModelName { get; set; }

    public virtual ICollection<ChildModel> ChildModels { get; set; }

    // Other properties, collections, etc.

    public static Expression<Func<Model, ModelDto>> AsDto =>
        model => new ModelDto
        { 
            ModelId = model.ModelId,
            ModelName = model.ModelName,
            ChildModels = model.ChildModels.AsQueryable().Select(ChildModel.AsDto).ToList()
        };
}

Query:

dbContext.Models.Where(m => SomeCriteria).Select(Model.AsDto).ToList();

My question is about trying to find a way to do something similar for a child that is not a collection. If I have added to my model:

public AnotherChildModel AnotherChildModel { get; set; }

I can add a conversion in the expression:

public static Expression<Func<Model, ModelDto>> AsDto =>
    model => new ModelDto
    { 
        ModelId = model.ModelId,
        ModelName = model.ModelName,
        ChildModels = model.ChildModels.AsQueryable().Select(ChildModel.AsDto).ToList(),
        AnotherChildModel = new AnotherChildModelDto
        {
            AnotherChildModelId = model.AnotherChildModelId
        }
    };

But, I have not found a good way to avoid repeating this code every time that I need to convert the second child model to a DTO object. The expressions work for the main object and any child collections, but not for single entities. Is there a way to add the equivalent of a .Select() for a single entity?

Answer 1

There are several libraries which allows to do that in intuitive way:

LINQKit

[Expandable(nameof(AsDtoImpl))]
public static ModelDto AsDto(Model model)
{
   _asDtoImpl ??= AsDtoImpl() .Compile();
   return _asDtoImpl(model);
}

private static Func<Model, ModelDto> _asDtoImpl;

private static Expression<Func<Model, ModelDto>> AsDtoImpl =>
    model => new ModelDto
    { 
        ModelId = model.ModelId,
        ModelName = model.ModelName,
        ChildModels = model.ChildModels.AsQueryable().Select(ChildModel.AsDto).ToList(),
        AnotherChildModel = new AnotherChildModelDto
        {
            AnotherChildModelId = model.AnotherChildModelId
        }
    };

dbContext.Models
   .Where(m => SomeCriteria).Select(m => Model.AsDto(m))
   .AsExpandable()
   .ToList();

UPDATE: For EF Core, LINQKit can be confugred globally and AsExpanding() can be omitted.

builder
    .UseSqlServer(connectionString)
    .WithExpressionExpanding(); // enabling LINQKit extension

NeinLinq - almost the same as in LINQKit

[InjectLambda]
public static ModelDto AsDto(Model model)
{
   _asDto ??= AsDto() .Compile();
   return _asDto(model);
}

private static Func<Model, ModelDto> _asDto;

private static Expression<Func<Model, ModelDto>> AsDto =>
    model => new ModelDto
    { 
        ModelId = model.ModelId,
        ModelName = model.ModelName,
        ChildModels = model.ChildModels.AsQueryable().Select(ChildModel.AsDto).ToList(),
        AnotherChildModel = new AnotherChildModelDto
        {
            AnotherChildModelId = model.AnotherChildModelId
        }
    };

dbContext.Models
   .Where(m => SomeCriteria).Select(m => Model.AsDto(m))
   .ToInjectable()
   .ToList();

UPDATE: For EF Core, NenLinq can be confugred globally and ToInjectable() can be omitted.

builder
    .UseSqlServer(connectionString)
    .WithLambdaInjection(); // enabling NeinLinq extension

DelegateDecompiler - less verbose than others

[Computed]
public static ModelDto AsDto(Model model)
  => new ModelDto
    { 
        ModelId = model.ModelId,
        ModelName = model.ModelName,
        ChildModels = model.ChildModels.AsQueryable().Select(ChildModel.AsDto).ToList(),
        AnotherChildModel = new AnotherChildModelDto
        {
            AnotherChildModelId = model.AnotherChildModelId
        }
    }

dbContext.Models
   .Where(m => SomeCriteria).Select(m => Model.AsDto(m))
   .Decompile()
   .ToList();

All libraries do the same thing - correct expression tree before EF Core processing. All of them need additional call to inject it's own IQueryProvider.