bcquality/community/knowledge/performance/load-common-fields-before-branching-on-case.md
Jesper Schulz-Wedde 0540c7bf6e Reframe seed-article banners as community contribution invitations
The 35 articles still in their seed form previously carried a banner
reading "Seed article. ... Domain stewards should expand, restructure,
and refine as needed." For a community preview, that phrasing reads as
"TODO left in production" to first-time visitors.

Replace all three banner variants (performance-seeded, security-seeded,
community-ported) with a single positive invitation:

> Contributions welcome — open a PR to refine or extend this article.

Content and structure of the articles are unchanged; only the leading
quote block differs. Articles that had their banner fully stripped in
the earlier triage pass (the showcase-grade ten) are unaffected.
2026-04-23 17:31:36 +02:00

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Markdown

---
bc-version: [all]
domain: performance
keywords: [setloadfields, case, conditional, branch, field-loading]
technologies: [al]
countries: [w1]
application-area: [all]
---
# Load common fields before branching on case
> Contributions welcome — open a PR to refine or extend this article.
## Description
When record processing branches on state, different branches typically read different fields. A single `SetLoadFields` at the top listing every field any branch might touch pulls more data than any individual execution path needs — on the hot path, the rest is loaded for nothing. A two-tier approach matches loading to actual usage: load the fields the `case` expression evaluates plus any fields every branch uses, then add a branch-local `SetLoadFields` inside each branch for that branch's extra fields.
## Best Practice
Before the `case`, call `SetLoadFields` with the minimal set — the discriminator field and fields common to every branch. Inside each branch, before the first access to a branch-specific field, add a second `SetLoadFields` covering those fields. The platform honors the in-branch call for the next record operation, so the extra data is fetched only when the branch runs.
See sample: `load-common-fields-before-branching-on-case.good.al`.
## Anti Pattern
A single top-level `SetLoadFields` enumerating every field any branch might read. On records whose state routes them to the fast common branch, the rarely-needed fields are still loaded — the optimization becomes a net-neutral or net-negative change on the hot path.
See sample: `load-common-fields-before-branching-on-case.bad.al`.