bcquality/microsoft/knowledge/performance/prefer-direct-record-over-recordref.md
Jesper Schulz-Wedde 9a4198eb28 Add [all] sentinel to bc-version; apply to version-agnostic knowledge
Most of the corpus — FindSet/SetLoadFields/CalcFields patterns, permission
sets, SingleInstance codeunits, DataClassification, IsolatedStorage,
transaction scope, SecretText — describes BC platform behaviour that is
identical across supported versions. The seed [26..28] range on every
file implied a version-specificity the content does not actually have,
and there was no way to express "applies to every version" in the
schema the way [w1] and [all] already do for countries and
application-area.

Extend the v1 schema with a universal sentinel for bc-version, parallel
to the sentinels already defined for the other dimensions:

  bc-version: [all]         # applies to every BC version

[all] is mutually exclusive with explicit versions. Range shorthand
([26..28]) and explicit lists ([26, 27, 28]) continue to work for files
genuinely tied to a version-gated API or deprecation.

Update read.md (field definition, matching semantics, partial-context
rule), write.md (default to [all], use ranges only with a concrete
reason), README.md (frontmatter example), and the CI validator. All
forty existing knowledge files and the three action skills convert to
[all]; none of the current content is version-gated. Validator passes.
2026-04-23 16:00:03 +02:00

1.3 KiB

bc-version domain keywords technologies countries application-area
all
performance
recordref
fieldref
dynamic
reflection
al
w1
all

Prefer direct record access over RecordRef where possible

Seed article. Converted from an existing performance-review prompt to bootstrap the BCQuality performance corpus. Domain stewards should expand, restructure, and refine as needed.

Description

RecordRef and FieldRef are the platform's reflection API: they work across tables the compiler does not know at authoring time. That flexibility costs per-operation overhead — every field access goes through a lookup — and loses compile-time type checking. For operations where the table is known, a strongly-typed Record variable is simpler and faster.

Best Practice

Use Record variables for code paths that target a known table. Reach for RecordRef and FieldRef only when the table is genuinely dynamic (generic export/import, field-agnostic utilities, cross-table integrations).

See sample: prefer-direct-record-over-recordref.good.al.

Anti Pattern

Using RecordRef as a habit, even when the target table is hardcoded two lines earlier, costs performance and hides intent from reviewers.

See sample: prefer-direct-record-over-recordref.bad.al.