---
bc-version: [all]
domain: performance
keywords: [setloadfields, partial-record, normal-field, flowfield, get, findset, statement-order]
technologies: [al]
countries: [w1]
application-area: [all]
---

# Use SetLoadFields to load only the fields the code reads

## Description

`SetLoadFields(...)` declares the subset of normal fields the next read should materialize, "reducing data read and transfer thereby improving performance significantly." Per the upstream guidance, "the gains scale with the amount of rows read, so for loops that read many rows `SetLoadFields` is even more important." Primary-key fields, `SystemId`, and system audit fields are loaded automatically, "and fields that are filtered on are also automatically included" — those do not need to appear in the list. `SetLoadFields` only affects `FieldClass = Normal`; it does not narrow FlowFields or FlowFilters. Its position relative to `SetRange`/`SetFilter` does not change the projection: filtered fields are added to the load set at read time either way. Projection-changing operations are separate: `AddLoadFields(...)` expands the selection, a later `SetLoadFields(...)` or `SetBaseLoadFields()` overwrites it, and `Reset()` or a fieldless `SetLoadFields()` restores all readable normal fields.

## Best Practice

Before a `Get`, `FindSet`, or `FindFirst` that the procedure follows by reading only a handful of the table's fields, call `SetLoadFields` listing exactly those fields. The pattern `SetLoadFields(...); if Record.Get(...) then ...` is the upstream-endorsed shape. Place the call immediately before the read, after any `SetRange`/`SetFilter`, so a reader can see at a glance which read the selection governs and any projection-changing operation is easy to spot. Skip `SetLoadFields` when the table has few fields (under ten), when the code reads most of them (above 60 %), when the loop runs ten or fewer iterations, or when the table is exempt for other reasons (`singleton-setup-tables-need-no-access-optimization.md`, `temporary-tables-have-no-database-cost.md`). For report dataitems, use `AddLoadFields` in `OnPreDataItem` instead (see `addloadfields-in-report-onpredataitem.md`).

See sample: `use-setloadfields-for-partial-records.good.al`.

## Anti Pattern

Loading a wide table and reading one field per row in a loop. The bytes transferred per row are dominated by the columns the procedure does not touch; the SQL query selects them anyway. The same applies to a single `Get` on a wide table — the platform reads the whole row when a single field would have sufficed.

Statement order is not part of this anti pattern. `SetLoadFields` placed ahead of `SetRange`/`SetFilter` materializes exactly the same columns as the reverse order, so a reviewer reports it as a readability observation at most — never as a performance defect.

See sample: `use-setloadfields-for-partial-records.bad.al`.