SelectFields

The SelectFields<T> method is very similar to ProjectFromIndexFieldsInto<T> but it works with Lucene queries. After applying it the query results will become objects of the specified type T. The transformation is done server side and the projected fields are retrieved directly from stored index fields, what influences positively time of the query execution. It means that an index definition should indicate what fields have to be stored inside Lucene index, for example:

public class Product_ByName : AbstractIndexCreationTask<Product>
{
	public Product_ByName()
	{
		Map = products => from product in products
						  select new
						  {
							  Name = product.Name
						  };

		Stores.Add(x => x.Name, FieldStorage.Yes);
		Stores.Add(x => x.Description, FieldStorage.Yes);
	}
}

Now you can take advantage of those field when querying the index:

var results =
	session.Advanced.LuceneQuery<Product>("Product/ByName")
	       .SelectFields<ProductViewModel>()
	       .WhereEquals(x => x.Name, "Raven")
	       .ToList();

The classes Product and ProductViewModel look as following:

public class Product
{
	public string Id { get; set; }
	public string ArticleNumber { get; set; }
	public string Name { get; set; }
	public string Manufacturer { get; set; }
	public string Description { get; set; }
	public int QuantityInWarehouse { get; set; }
}

public class ProductViewModel
{
	public string Name { get; set; }
	public string Description { get; set; }
}

The default behavior of SelectFields<T> method is the same like of ProjectFromIndexFieldsInto<T>, so it means that the projection is performed from index stored values if they are available (note the usage of Stores.Add in the index definition), otherwise the entire document is pulled and appropriate properties are used for the transformation. It works differently if you specify exactly what fields you want to fetch directly from index, e.g.:

var resultsWithNameOnly =
	session.Advanced.LuceneQuery<Product>("Product/ByName")
		   .SelectFields<ProductViewModel>("Name")
		   .WhereEquals(x => x.Name, "Raven")
		   .ToList();

In case above only Name property will be retrieved and the resulting objects will consist of projected Name value while Description will be null.