title: .NET MVC Strongly typed helper - Get value from property?
body: <p>I'm creating a strongly typed helper (ref: <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2122424/is-it-possible-to-create-a-custom-asp-net-mvc-strongly-typed-html-helper">SO question</a>). As 'commented' in the code below, <strong>is it possible to somehow get the value from the expressed property and thus bypass the optional <code>selectedValue</code> parameter?</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>    &lt;Extension()&gt; _
      Public Function DatePickerFor(Of TModel As Class, TProperty)(ByVal htmlHelper As HtmlHelper(Of TModel), ByVal expression As Expression(Of Func(Of TModel, TProperty)), Optional ByVal selectedValue As Nullable(Of Date) = Nothing) As MvcHtmlString
          Dim inputName = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(expression)
          Dim inputValue = selectedValue 
          //Something like this possible? 
          //inputValue = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionValue(expression)
          Return DatePicker(htmlHelper, inputName, inputValue)
      End Function
  </code></pre>