[ACCEPTED]-In C#, Is Expression API better than Reflection-expression

Regarding calling one method :

• Direct call can't be beaten speed-wise.

• Using Expression 28 API is globally similar to using Reflection.Emit or Delegate.CreateDelegate speed-wise 27 (Small differences could be measured; as 26 always optimizing for speed without measurements 25 and goals is useless).

  They all generate 24 IL and the framework will compile it to 23 native code at some point. But you still 22 pay the cost of one indirection level for 21 calling the delegate and one method call 20 inside your delegate.

  The expression API 19 is more limited, but an order of magnitude 18 simpler to use, as it doesn't require you 17 to learn IL.

• The Dynamic Language Runtime 16 either used directly or via the dynamic keyword 15 of C# 4 add a little overhead but stay near 14 emitting code as it cache most checks related 13 to parameter types, access and the rest.

  When 12 used via the dynamic keyword it's also get the 11 neatest syntax as it looks like a normal 10 method call. But if you use dynamic you 9 are limited to method calls while the library 8 is able to do a lot more (See IronPython)

• System.Reflection.MethodInfo.Invoke is slow : in addition to what other methods do it need to check access rights, check arguments count, type, ... against the MethodInfo each time you call the method.

Jon Skeet 7 also get some good points in this answer 6 : Delegate.CreateDelegate vs DynamicMethod vs Expression

Some samples, the same thing done different 5 ways.

You could already see from the line 4 count and complexity which solutions are 3 easy to maintain and which should be avoided 2 from a long term maintenance standpoint.

Most of the samples are pointless but they demonstrate the basic code generation classes / syntaxes of C#, for more info there is always the MSDN

PS: Dump 1 is a LINQPad method.

public class Foo
{
    public string Bar(int value) { return value.ToString(); }
}

void Main()
{
    object foo = new Foo();

    // We have an instance of something and want to call a method with this signature on it :
    // public string Bar(int value);

    Console.WriteLine("Cast and Direct method call");
    {
        var result = ((Foo)foo).Bar(42);
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Create a lambda closing on the local scope.");
    {
        // Useless but i'll do it at the end by manual il generation

        Func<int, string> func = i => ((Foo)foo).Bar(i);
        var result = func(42);
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Using MethodInfo.Invoke");
    {
        var method = foo.GetType().GetMethod("Bar");
        var result = (string)method.Invoke(foo, new object[] { 42 });
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Using the dynamic keyword");
    {
        var dynamicFoo = (dynamic)foo;
        var result = (string)dynamicFoo.Bar(42);
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Using CreateDelegate");
    {
        var method = foo.GetType().GetMethod("Bar");
        var func = (Func<int, string>)Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<int, string>), foo, method);
        var result = func(42);
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Create an expression and compile it to call the delegate on one instance.");
    {
        var method = foo.GetType().GetMethod("Bar");
        var thisParam = Expression.Constant(foo);
        var valueParam = Expression.Parameter(typeof(int), "value");
        var call = Expression.Call(thisParam, method, valueParam);
        var lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<int, string>>(call, valueParam);
        var func = lambda.Compile();
        var result = func(42);
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Create an expression and compile it to a delegate that could be called on any instance.");
    {
        // Note that in this case "Foo" must be known at compile time, obviously in this case you want
        // to do more than call a method, otherwise just call it !
        var type = foo.GetType();
        var method = type.GetMethod("Bar");
        var thisParam = Expression.Parameter(type, "this");
        var valueParam = Expression.Parameter(typeof(int), "value");
        var call = Expression.Call(thisParam, method, valueParam);
        var lambda = Expression.Lambda<Func<Foo, int, string>>(call, thisParam, valueParam);
        var func = lambda.Compile();
        var result = func((Foo)foo, 42);
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Create a DynamicMethod and compile it to a delegate that could be called on any instance.");
    {
        // Same thing as the previous expression sample. Foo need to be known at compile time and need
        // to be provided to the delegate.

        var type = foo.GetType();
        var method = type.GetMethod("Bar");

        var dynamicMethod = new DynamicMethod("Bar_", typeof(string), new [] { typeof(Foo), typeof(int) }, true);
        var il = dynamicMethod.GetILGenerator();
        il.DeclareLocal(typeof(string));
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_1);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Call, method);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);
        var func = (Func<Foo, int, string>)dynamicMethod.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<Foo, int, string>));
        var result = func((Foo)foo, 42);
        result.Dump();
    }
    Console.WriteLine("Simulate closure without closures and in a lot more lines...");
    {
        var type = foo.GetType();
        var method = type.GetMethod("Bar");

        // The Foo class must be public for this to work, the "skipVisibility" argument of
        // DynamicMethod.CreateDelegate can't be emulated without breaking the .Net security model.

        var assembly = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.DefineDynamicAssembly(
            new AssemblyName("MyAssembly"), AssemblyBuilderAccess.Run);
        var module = assembly.DefineDynamicModule("MyModule");
        var tb = module.DefineType("MyType", TypeAttributes.Class | TypeAttributes.Public);

        var fooField = tb.DefineField("FooInstance", type, FieldAttributes.Public);
        var barMethod = tb.DefineMethod("Bar_", MethodAttributes.Public, typeof(string), new [] { typeof(int) });
        var il = barMethod.GetILGenerator();
        il.DeclareLocal(typeof(string));
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_0); // this
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ldfld, fooField);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_1); // arg
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Call, method);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);

        var closureType = tb.CreateType();

        var instance = closureType.GetConstructors().Single().Invoke(new object[0]);

        closureType.GetField(fooField.Name).SetValue(instance, foo);

        var methodOnClosureType = closureType.GetMethod("Bar_");

        var func = (Func<int, string>)Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<int, string>), instance,
            closureType.GetMethod("Bar_"));
        var result = func(42);
        result.Dump();
    }
}

Reflection does perform slower. For a good 1 article on it see this article.

This guy actually measured it.

http://www.palmmedia.de/Blog/2012/2/4/reflection-vs-compiled-expressions-vs-delegates-performance-comparison

In short: compiled 2 expression that is cached to a static var and 1 reused - performs much faster than reflection.