Lazy Fields automatically create Partial Objects omitting columns from initial load.

[beberlei]

With native lazy loading support and partial objects as lazy objects, another feature that we could "easily" implement is marking columns as lazy, which would automatically make an entity a partial object.

<?php

#[Entity]
class Post
{
    #[Id, GeneratedValue, Column(type: Types::INTEGER)]
    public int $id;
    #[Column]
    public string $title;
    #[Column, Lazy]
    public string $body;
}

$post = $entityManager->find(Post::class, 1);
echo $post->title; // direct access
echo $post->body; // triggers lazy loading SELECT body FROM post WHERE id = 1

This also requires a way to specify that an object should be "FULLY" loaded from the beginning, i don't. have a complete idea on how to do that, multiple options:

1. DQL keyword SELECT FULL p FROM Post p
2. Allow passing $hints to finder methods, $entityManager->find(1, hints: [Query::HINT_FORCE_FULL_LOAD => true]) or ssomething similar.

Related:

• Make partial entities native lazy proxies that can initialize #12209
• Proposal: partial objects, lazy load for field access #5659