Select columns using OData

Important

When you query data, it's important to limit the amount of data returned to optimize performance. Only select the columns with data that you need.

Use the $select query option to choose which columns to return with your query. In OData, every column is represented as a property. If you don't include a $select query option, all properties are returned.

The following example requests the name and revenue properties from the first row of the accounts EntitySet resource:

Request:

GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/accounts?$select=name,revenue&$top=1
Accept: application/json  
OData-MaxVersion: 4.0  
OData-Version: 4.0  

Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK  
Content-Type: application/json; odata.metadata=minimal  
OData-Version: 4.0  

{
    "@odata.context": "[Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/$metadata#accounts(name,revenue)",
    "value": [
        {
            "@odata.etag": "W/\"81052965\"",
            "name": "Litware, Inc. (sample)",
            "revenue": 20000.0000,
            "_transactioncurrencyid_value": "228f42f8-e646-e111-8eb7-78e7d162ced1",
            "accountid": "4624eff7-53d3-ed11-a7c7-000d3a993550"
        }
    ]
}

The primary key property is always returned so you don't need to include it in your $select. In this example, accountid is the primary key.

Other property values may also be included in the response. In this case, the _transactioncurrencyid_value lookup property for the related Currency (TransactionCurrency) table/entity reference is included because revenue is a currency property.

Which properties are available?

All the available properties for an entity are found in the $metadata service document. More information: Web API Properties

The entity types included with Dataverse are described in the Web API Entity Type Reference.

Tip

The easiest way to quickly discover which properties are available is to send a request using the $top query option with a value of 1 without using $select.

Formatted values

Formatted values are string values generated on the server that you can use in your application. Formatted values include:

• The localized labels for choice, choices, yes/no, status, and status reason columns
• The primary name value for lookup and owner properties
• Currency values with currency symbols
• Formatted date values in the user's time zone

To include formatted values in your results, use the Prefer request header to send the odata.include-annotations preference

Prefer: odata.include-annotations="OData.Community.Display.V1.FormattedValue"

Formatted values are one of several annotations you can request. Use Prefer: odata.include-annotations="*" to include all annotations. More information: Request annotations

The formatted value is returned with the record with an annotation that follows this convention:

<property name>@OData.Community.Display.V1.FormattedValue

For example:

Request:

GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/accounts?$select=name,revenue,_primarycontactid_value,customertypecode,modifiedon
&$top=1
Accept: application/json  
OData-MaxVersion: 4.0  
OData-Version: 4.0
Prefer: odata.include-annotations="OData.Community.Display.V1.FormattedValue"

The following table describes the values and formatted values that are returned for the requested properties.

Property	Value	Formatted value
name	Litware, Inc. (sample)	None
revenue	20000.0000	$20,000.00
_primarycontactid_value	70bf4d48-34cb-ed11-b596-0022481d68cd	Susanna Stubberod (sample)
customertypecode	1	Competitor
modifiedon	2023-04-07T21:59:01Z	4/7/2023 2:59 PM
_transactioncurrencyid_value	228f42f8-e646-e111-8eb7-78e7d162ced1	US Dollar
accountid	78914942-34cb-ed11-b596-0022481d68cd	None

Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK  
Content-Type: application/json; odata.metadata=minimal  
OData-Version: 4.0
Preference-Applied: odata.include-annotations="OData.Community.Display.V1.FormattedValue"

{
    "@odata.context": "[Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/$metadata#accounts(name,revenue)",
    "value": [
{
            "@odata.etag": "W/\"81359849\"",
            "name": "Litware, Inc. (sample)",
            "revenue@OData.Community.Display.V1.FormattedValue": "$20,000.00",
            "revenue": 20000.0000,
            "_primarycontactid_value@OData.Community.Display.V1.FormattedValue": "Susanna Stubberod (sample)",
            "_primarycontactid_value": "70bf4d48-34cb-ed11-b596-0022481d68cd",
            "customertypecode@OData.Community.Display.V1.FormattedValue": "Competitor",
            "customertypecode": 1,
            "modifiedon@OData.Community.Display.V1.FormattedValue": "4/7/2023 2:59 PM",
            "modifiedon": "2023-04-07T21:59:01Z",
            "_transactioncurrencyid_value@OData.Community.Display.V1.FormattedValue": "US Dollar",
            "_transactioncurrencyid_value": "228f42f8-e646-e111-8eb7-78e7d162ced1",
            "accountid": "78914942-34cb-ed11-b596-0022481d68cd"
        }
    ]
}

Lookup property data

When a lookup property represents a multi-table, or polymorphic, relationship, you need to request specific annotations to determine which table contains the related data.

For example, many tables have records that users or teams may own. Ownership data is stored in a lookup column named ownerid. This column is a single-valued navigation property in OData. You could use $expand to create a join to get this value, but you can't use $select. However, you can use $select to get the corresponding _ownerid_value lookup property.

When you include the _ownerid_value lookup property with your $select, it returns a GUID value. This value doesn't tell you whether the owner of the record is a user or a team. You need to request annotations to get this data.

To include these annotations in your results, use the Prefer request header to send the odata.include-annotations preference with these settings:

Prefer: odata.include-annotations="Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.associatednavigationproperty,Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.lookuplogicalname"

Tip

Or you can use Prefer: odata.include-annotations="*" to include all annotations. More information: Request annotations

Request:

GET [Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/accounts?$select=name,_ownerid_value&$top=2
Accept: application/json  
OData-MaxVersion: 4.0  
OData-Version: 4.0
Prefer: odata.include-annotations="Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.associatednavigationproperty,Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.lookuplogicalname"

The following response returns two different account records. The _ownerid_value@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.lookuplogicalname annotation tells you that a team owns the first one, and a systemuser owns the second one.

Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK  
Content-Type: application/json; odata.metadata=minimal  
OData-Version: 4.0
Preference-Applied: odata.include-annotations="Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.associatednavigationproperty,Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.lookuplogicalname"

{
    "@odata.context": "[Organization URI]/api/data/v9.2/$metadata#accounts(name,_ownerid_value)",
    "value": [
        {
            "@odata.etag": "W/\"81550512\"",
            "name": "Adventure Works (sample)",
            "_ownerid_value@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.associatednavigationproperty": "ownerid",
            "_ownerid_value@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.lookuplogicalname": "team",
            "_ownerid_value": "39e0dbe4-131b-e111-ba7e-78e7d1620f5e",
            "accountid": "1adef0b8-54d3-ed11-a7c7-000d3a993550"
        },
        {
            "@odata.etag": "W/\"81359849\"",
            "name": "Litware, Inc. (sample)",
            "_ownerid_value@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.associatednavigationproperty": "ownerid",
            "_ownerid_value@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.lookuplogicalname": "systemuser",
            "_ownerid_value": "4026be43-6b69-e111-8f65-78e7d1620f5e",
            "accountid": "78914942-34cb-ed11-b596-0022481d68cd"
        }
    ]
}

• <lookup property name>@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.lookuplogicalname is the logical name of the related table.
• <lookup property name>@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.associatednavigationproperty is the name of the corresponding single-valued navigation property. You can use $expand using this value in another request to get more data from the related record.

Column aliases

For Web API, use fetchxml to specify customized aliases for columns.

There is currently no way to specify column aliases using Dataverse Web API using OData. OData 4.0 doesn't include the $compute system query option introduced in OData 4.01 that is required to provide this capability.

Next steps

Learn how to join tables.

Join tables