Hey {{first_name | there}},
Quick one this week — a single swap that makes your scripts noticeably faster.
💡 This week's tip: Replace your GlideRecord count loops.
If you've ever written something like this:
var count = 0; var gr = new GlideRecord('incident'); gr.addEncodedQuery('active=true'); gr.query(); while (gr.next()) { count++; }
You're loading every matching record into application server memory just to count them. On a busy instance with tens of thousands of incidents — that's slow, expensive, and completely unnecessary.
The fix — GlideAggregate:
var ga = new GlideAggregate('incident'); ga.addEncodedQuery('active=true'); ga.addAggregate('COUNT'); ga.query(); if (ga.next()) { var count = ga.getAggregate('COUNT'); }
GlideAggregate pushes the COUNT directly to the database. One query, one number returned. Zero records loaded into memory.
The rule: If you're writing a GlideRecord loop just to count, replace it immediately.
GlideAggregate also handles SUM, AVG, MIN, MAX, and GROUP BY — so you can get grouped counts by assignment group, category, or any other field without touching a single record.
📚 From the blog this week
Full reference with GROUP BY, HAVING clause, and real examples.
The top anti-patterns that slow ServiceNow instances — and the fixes.
🚀 This week on NowSpectrum
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