nHibernate: limit the result set of a mapped collection

Question

How do you limit the result set of a mapped collection in nHibernate? For instance:

Model.Items;

will always return all the Items for the given Model. Is there any way to force it to return only, say, 20 Items without creating a specific query ? Something like

Model.Items.SetMaxResults(20); 

In other words, I would like nHibernate to return IQueryable instead of a simple IList, when I access a collection.

Update. Although I have accepted the answer, I would like to point out that this is not in line with nHibernate's intended way of usage, and a child collection should be loaded and limited within a separate query.

Answer 1

.SetProjection(Projections.Property("Items")) .SetMaxResults(20)

Answer 2

Yes, you can use the <loader /> mapping element to specify a query that will load the collection. More information can be found here and here.

Answer 3

What you want can be accomplished with a filter:

IQuery q = nhSession.CreateFilter(Parent.ChildCollection, "select count(*)");
long countResult = q.UniqueResult<long>();

as you see the filter in an IQuery and you are not limited to the "select count" paradigm i just gave. Additionally, this solution requires a normal collection mapped so you can use it in multiple ways.