Getting the MethodInfo of a generic method using Lambda expressions

Getting hold of the MethodInfo of a generic method via Reflection (so you can invoke it dynamically, for example) can be a bit of a pain. So this afternoon I formulated a pain-killer, SymbolExtensions.GetMethodInfo. It’s not fussy: it works for non-generic methods too. You use it like this:

internal class SymbolExtensionsTests
{
    [Test]
    public void GetMethodInfo_should_return_method_info()
    {
        var methodInfo = SymbolExtensions.GetMethodInfo<TestClass>(c => c.AMethod());
        methodInfo.Name.ShouldEqual("AMethod");
    }

    [Test]
    public void GetMethodInfo_should_return_method_info_for_generic_method()
    {
        var methodInfo = SymbolExtensions.GetMethodInfo<TestClass>(c => c.AGenericMethod(default(int)));

        methodInfo.Name.ShouldEqual("AGenericMethod");
        methodInfo.GetParameters().First().ParameterType.ShouldEqual(typeof(int));
    }

    [Test]
    public void GetMethodInfo_should_return_method_info_for_static_method_on_static_class()
    {
        var methodInfo = SymbolExtensions.GetMethodInfo(() => StaticTestClass.StaticTestMethod());

        methodInfo.Name.ShouldEqual("StaticTestMethod");
        methodInfo.IsStatic.ShouldBeTrue();
    }
}

The active ingredient, as you can see, is Lambda expressions:

using System.Linq;
using System.Linq.Expressions;
using System.Reflection;
using System;

public static class SymbolExtensions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Given a lambda expression that calls a method, returns the method info.
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
    /// <param name="expression">The expression.</param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static MethodInfo GetMethodInfo(Expression<Action> expression)
    {
        return GetMethodInfo((LambdaExpression)expression);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Given a lambda expression that calls a method, returns the method info.
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
    /// <param name="expression">The expression.</param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static MethodInfo GetMethodInfo<T>(Expression<Action<T>> expression)
    {
        return GetMethodInfo((LambdaExpression)expression);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Given a lambda expression that calls a method, returns the method info.
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
    /// <param name="expression">The expression.</param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static MethodInfo GetMethodInfo<T, TResult>(Expression<Func<T, TResult>> expression)
    {
        return GetMethodInfo((LambdaExpression)expression);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Given a lambda expression that calls a method, returns the method info.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="expression">The expression.</param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static MethodInfo GetMethodInfo(LambdaExpression expression)
    {
        MethodCallExpression outermostExpression = expression.Body as MethodCallExpression;

        if (outermostExpression == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentException("Invalid Expression. Expression should consist of a Method call only.");
        }

        return outermostExpression.Method;
    }
}