c# - LINQ Grouping dynamically

Question

I have a class list of records, so user can select to group rows dynamically by property name. For example MenuText, RoleName or ActionName. Then I have to execute grouping so I need a generic method to handle grouping by passing column name.

Example :

public class Menu
{
  public string MenuText {get;set;}
  public string RoleName {get;set;}
  public string ActionName {get;set;}
}

public class Menus 
{
 var list = new List<Menu>();
 list.Add( new Menu {MenuText="abc",RoleName ="Admin", ActionName="xyz"};
 list.Add( new Menu {MenuText="abc",RoleName ="Admin", ActionName="xyz"};
 list.Add( new Menu {MenuText="abc1",RoleName ="Admin1", ActionName="xyz1"};
 list.Add( new Menu {MenuText="abc1",RoleName ="Admin1", ActionName="xyz1"};

  /// columnName :- Name of the Menu class ( MenuText  or RoleName  or ActionName)

  public IEnumerable<IGrouping<string,IEnumerable<Menu>>> GroupMenu(string columnName)
  {
          // Here I want to get group the list of menu by the columnName 
  }
}

Answer 1

If you're not working with a database you can use Reflection:

private static object GetPropertyValue(object obj, string propertyName)
{
    return obj.GetType().GetProperty(propertyName).GetValue(obj, null);
}

Used as:

var grouped = enumeration.GroupBy(x => GetPropertyValue(x, columnName));

This is a pretty raw solution, a better way should be to use Dynamic LINQ:

var grouped = enumeration.GroupBy(columnName, selector);

EDIT Dynamic LINQ maybe needs some explanations. It's not a technology, a library or a brand new framework. It's just a convenient name for a couple (2000 LOC) of helpers methods that let you write such queries. Just download their source (if you don't have VS samples installed) and use them in your code.