Dynamically choose which properties to get using Linq - linq

Question

I have an MVC application with a dynamic table on one of the pages, which the users defines how many columns the table has, the columns order and where to get the data from for each field.
I have written some very bad code in order to keep it dynamic and now I would like it to be more efficient.
My problem is that I don't know how to define the columns I should get back into my IEnumerable on runtime. My main issue is that I don't know how many columns I might have.
I have a reference to a class which gets the field's text. I also have a dictionary of each field's order with the exact property It should get the data from.
My code should look something like that:
var docsRes3 = from d in docs
select new[]
{
for (int i=0; i<numOfCols; i++)
{
gen.getFieldText(d, res.FieldSourceDic[i]);
}
};
where:
docs = List from which I would like to get only specific fields
res.FieldSourceDic = Dictionary in which the key is the order of the column and the value is the property
gen.getFieldText = The function which gets the entity and the property and returns the value
Obviously, it doesn't work.
I also tried
StringBuilder fieldsSB = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < numOfCols; i++)
{
string field = "d." + res.FieldSourceDic[i] + ".ToString()";
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(fieldsSB.ToString()))
{
fieldsSB.Append(",");
}
fieldsSB.Append(field);
}
var docsRes2 = from d in docs
select new[] { fieldsSB.ToString() };
It also didn't work.
The only thing that worked for me so far was:
List<string[]> docsRes = new List<string[]>();
foreach (NewOriginDocumentManagment d in docs)
{
string[] row = new string[numOfCols];
for (int i = 0; i < numOfCols; i++)
{
row[i] = gen.getFieldText(d, res.FieldSourceDic[i]);
}
docsRes.Add(row);
}
Any idea how can I pass the linq the list of fields and it'll cut the needed data out of it efficiently?
Thanks, Hoe I was clear about what I need....

Answer 1

Try following:
var docsRes3 = from d in docs
select (
from k in res.FieldSourceDic.Keys.Take(numOfCols)
select gen.getFieldText(d, res.FieldSourceDic[k]));

Answer 2

I got my answer with some help from the following link:
http://www.codeproject.com/Questions/141367/Dynamic-Columns-from-List-using-LINQ
First I created a string array of all properties:
//Creats a string of all properties as defined in the XML
//Columns order must be started at 0. No skips are allowed
StringBuilder fieldsSB = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < numOfCols; i++)
{
string field = res.FieldSourceDic[i];
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(fieldsSB.ToString()))
{
fieldsSB.Append(",");
}
fieldsSB.Append(field);
}
var cols = fieldsSB.ToString().Split(',');
//Gets the data for each row dynamically
var docsRes = docs.Select(d => GetProps(d, cols));
than I created the GetProps function, which is using my own function as described in the question:
private static dynamic GetProps(object d, IEnumerable<string> props)
{
if (d == null)
{
return null;
}
DynamicGridGenerator gen = new DynamicGridGenerator();
List<string> res = new List<string>();
foreach (var p in props)
{
res.Add(gen.getFieldText(d, p));
}
return res;
}