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Olumuyiwa Afolabi
Olumuyiwa Afolabi

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Supercharge Your ASP.NET Web API with Linq.Dynamic.Core

Building efficient APIs with ASP.NET Web API is already a powerful approach for modern application development. However, by leveraging Linq.Dynamic.Core, you can take your APIs to the next level, offering dynamic query generation, filtering, sorting, and moreโ€”all while reducing boilerplate code.

The Real-Life Analogy: Cooking with a Recipe vs. Cooking with Ingredients
Think of Linq.Dynamic.Core as cooking with a dynamic set of ingredients versus strictly following a recipe. With a recipe, you know exactly what to doโ€”step-by-step. This is similar to using static queries in your API, where the filtering, sorting, and conditions are hardcoded.

Setting up Linq.Dynamic.Core

Install-Package System.Linq.Dynamic.Core

Pros and Cons of Using Linq.Dynamic.Core

Pros:

  1. Flexibility: Allows users to generate dynamic queries at runtime without the need for predefined query logic.
  2. Code Reduction: Minimizes the boilerplate code you need to write for sorting, filtering, and pagination.
  3. Powerful Querying: Supports complex expressions including joins, subqueries, and dynamic projections.
  4. Performance: Since queries are composed on the database side, the performance overhead is generally minimal.

Cons:

  1. Runtime Errors: Since queries are built dynamically, any errors in user input (e.g., invalid expressions) will result in runtime errors, not compile-time errors.
  2. Security: Allowing direct input from users for filtering and sorting can be risky if not properly sanitized. Always validate and sanitize input to avoid issues like SQL injection.
  3. Learning Curve: While powerful, it requires developers to become familiar with writing expressions in string form and managing runtime queries.

Read More and Download the source code here: [https://producators.com/Supercharge-Your-ASP-NET-Web-API-with-Linq-Dynamic-Core-Source-Code-]

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