In this post I am going to analyse the question and define rules for each option.
Problem description
On the one hand, it is a common best practice to select only required information from a database, but quite often an entire record is fetched from the database, even though only one field is actually used. It can be compared to driving a car always on the 1st gear - the engine is fully used, but the car cannot drive fast.
On the other hand, there is a static find method design pattern - the method must be used whenever a record is selected by its key. Find method returns the entire record. Is it contradictory to the common best practice? Let's find out.
