Dynamically replace the contents of a C# method?

Question

What I want to do is change how a C# method executes when it is called, so that I can write something like this:

[Distributed]
public DTask Solve         


        

Answer 1

I know it is not the exact answer to your question, but the usual way to do it is using factories/proxy approach.

First we declare a base type.

public class SimpleClass
{
    public virtual DTask Solve(int n, DEvent callback)
    {
        for (int m = 2; m < n - 1; m += 1)
            if (m % n == 0)
                return false;
        return true;
    }
}

Then we can declare a derived type (call it proxy).

public class DistributedClass
{
    public override DTask Solve(int n, DEvent callback)
    {
        CodeToExecuteBefore();
        return base.Slove(n, callback);
    }
}

// At runtime

MyClass myInstance;

if (distributed)
    myInstance = new DistributedClass();
else
    myInstance = new SimpleClass();

The derived type can be also generated at runtime.

public static class Distributeds
{
    private static readonly ConcurrentDictionary pDistributedTypes = new ConcurrentDictionary();

    public Type MakeDistributedType(Type type)
    {
        Type result;
        if (!pDistributedTypes.TryGetValue(type, out result))
        {
            if (there is at least one method that have [Distributed] attribute)
            {
                result = create a new dynamic type that inherits the specified type;
            }
            else
            {
                result = type;
            }

            pDistributedTypes[type] = result;
        }
        return result;
    }

    public T MakeDistributedInstance()
        where T : class
    {
        Type type = MakeDistributedType(typeof(T));
        if (type != null)
        {
            // Instead of activator you can also register a constructor delegate generated at runtime if performances are important.
            return Activator.CreateInstance(type);
        }
        return null;
    }
}

// In your code...

MyClass myclass = Distributeds.MakeDistributedInstance();
myclass.Solve(...);

The only performance loss is during construction of the derived object, the first time is quite slow because it will use a lot of reflection and reflection emit. All other times, it is the cost of a concurrent table lookup and a constructor. As said, you can optimize construction using

ConcurrentDictionary>.