How to implement search functionality in C#/ASP.NET MVC

Question

I am developing an ASP.NET MVC 3 application using C# and Razor.

I have a search form that looks like this:

Answer 1

You could have the first combo data source set to myEntityObject.GetType().GetProperties(), the second to a list of displayable Funcs<string, string, bool>, like this:

public class ComboPredicate
{
    public Func<string, string, bool> Func {get; set;}
    public string Name {get; set; }
}

Later, when you load the form:

comboProperty.Datasource = myEntityObject.GetType().GetProperties()
comboOperation.Datasource = new List<Predicate>
    {
        {
            Name = "Contains",
            Predicate = (s1, s2) => s1 != null && s1.Contains(s2),
        },
        {
            Name = "Equals",
            Predicate = (s1, s2) => string.Compare(s1, s2) == 0,
        },
        //...
    }

And later, when you want to select your entities:

var propertyInfo = (PropertyInfo)comboProperty.SelectedValue;
var predicate = ((ComboPredicate)comboOperation.SelectedValue).Predicate;
var filteredObjects = objects.Where(o => predicate(propertyInfo.GetValue(o, null).ToString(), textBoxValue.Text));