Bringing back fields by internal name in SharePoint REST

Question

Let's say I have the query:

http://thisbox/_api/lists/getbytitle('ThisList')/items?$select=* 

But instead of "*" for selecting fields, I have a list of Field Internal Names and/or GUID's. I'd like to use to select from (I can retrieve either from elsewhere in my code). However the SELECT option seems to want to get only external (Visible) field names. Thoughts?

Answer 1

your first REST query should work as long as internal name of the position column is same. You can check by running below query which will display the metadata for columns along with their columns.

http://thisbox/_api/lists/getbytitle('ThisList')/items

you will see something like this:

<d:User_x0020_ModifiedId m:type="Edm.Int32">12</d:User_x0020_ModifiedId>

Now you run the query like this.

http://thisbox/_api/lists/getbytitle('ThisList')/items?$select=User_x0020_ModifiedId 

Answer 2

The query /_api/lists/getbytitle('<list title>')/items?$select=* returns list items for visible fields only (SP.Field.hidden property is set to false).

To be more precise the expression $select=* returns:

• visible fields values (query that returns visible field names: /_api/Web/Lists/getByTitle('<list title>')/fields?$select=InternalName&$filter=Hidden eq false)
• FileSystemObjectType hidden field value
• not all visible field values are returned, for example ItemChildCount is not available:

How to return an additional fields

In order to return an additional fields, the field name(s) have to be specified explicitly using $select query option. For example, to return hidden system field FileRef you could utilize the following query:

/_api/Web/Lists/getByTitle('<list title>')/items?$select=FileRef

or

/_api/Web/Lists/getByTitle('<list title>')/items?$select=FileRef,*

While the first query will return only a single FileRef field value, the latter query will return list field values plus FileRef field value.

About deferred fields

For some field types such as SP.FieldUser or SP.FieldLookup $select expressions returns only the identifier (ID) of the list item that this field is referring to. For example, the query: /_api/Web/Lists/getByTitle('<list title>')/items for Editor field returns only user id (EditorId)
For that case $expand query option comes to the rescue that is intended for retrieving projected fields, for example the query:

/_api/Web/Lists/getByTitle('<list title>')/items?$select=Editor/Title,Editor/Id&$expand=Editor 

returns Title and Id properties of Editor field

Answer 3

Not a direct way. Select only responds to the name/GUID. You would have to do an additional pull to

http://thisbox/_api/lists/getbytitle('ThisList')/Fields

in order to return the list of names, internal names and GUIDs and cross-reference accordingly.