ILGenerator. Whats wrong with this Code - reflection

Question

I am trying to build a dynamic Property Accessor. Want something which is like really fast as close to calling the actually Property. Dont want to go the Reflection route as its very slow. So i opted to using DynamicAssembly and inject IL using ILGenerator. Below is the ILGenerator related code which seems to work
Label nulllabel = getIL.DefineLabel();
Label returnlabel = getIL.DefineLabel();
//_type = targetGetMethod.ReturnType;
if (methods.Count > 0)
{
getIL.DeclareLocal(typeof(object));
getIL.DeclareLocal(typeof(bool));
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_1); //Load the first argument
//(target object)
//Cast to the source type
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Castclass, this.mTargetType);
//Get the property value
foreach (var methodInfo in methods)
{
getIL.EmitCall(OpCodes.Call, methodInfo, null);
if (methodInfo.ReturnType.IsValueType)
{
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Box, methodInfo.ReturnType);
//Box if necessary
}
}
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Stloc_0); //Store it
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Br_S,returnlabel);
getIL.MarkLabel(nulllabel);
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Ldnull);
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Stloc_0);
getIL.MarkLabel(returnlabel);
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Ldloc_0);
}
else
{
getIL.ThrowException(typeof(MissingMethodException));
}
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);
So above get the first argument which is the object that contains the property. the methods collection contains the nested property if any. for each property i use EmitCall which puts the the value on the stack and then i try to box it. This works like a charm.
The only issue is if you have a property like Order.Instrument.Symbol.Name and assume that Instrument object is null. Then the code will throw an null object exception.
So this what i did, i introduced a null check
foreach (var methodInfo in methods)
{
getIL.EmitCall(OpCodes.Call, methodInfo, null);
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Stloc_0);
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Ldloc_0);
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Ldnull);
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Ceq);
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Stloc_1);
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Ldloc_1);
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Brtrue_S, nulllabel);
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Ldloc_0);
if (methodInfo.ReturnType.IsValueType)
{
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Box, methodInfo.ReturnType);
//Box if necessary
}
}
Now this code breaks saying That the object/memory is corrupted etc. So what exactly is wrong with this code. Am i missing something here.
Thanks in Advance.

Answer 1

Previously, if you had consecutive properties P returning string and then Q returning int, you would get something like this:
...
call P // returns string
call Q // requires a string on the stack, returns an int
box
...
Now you have something like this:
...
call P // returns string
store // stores to object
... // load, compare to null, etc.
load // loads an *object*
call Q // requires a *string* on the stack
store // stores to object *without boxing*
...
So I see two clear problems:
You are calling methods in such a way that the target is only known to be an object, not a specific type which has that method.
You are not boxing value types before storing them to a local of type object.
These can be solved by reworking your logic slightly. There are also a few other minor details you could clean up:
Rather than ceq followed by brtrue, just use beq.
There's no point in doing Stloc_1 followed by Ldloc_1 rather than just using the value on the stack since that local isn't used anywhere else.
Incorporating these changes, here's what I'd do:
Type finalType = null;
foreach (var methodInfo in methods)
{
finalType = methodInfo.ReturnType;
getIL.EmitCall(OpCodes.Call, methodInfo, null);
if (!finalType.IsValueType)
{
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Dup);
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Ldnull);
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Beq_S, nulllabel);
}
}
if (finalType.IsValueType)
{
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Box, methodInfo.ReturnType);
//Box if necessary
}
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Br_S, returnLabel);
getIL.MarkLabel(nulllabel);
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Pop);
getIL.Emit(OpCodes.Ldnull);
getIL.MarkLabel(returnlabel);
Note that we can get rid of both locals since we now just duplicate the top value on the stack before comparing against null.