The fastest way to get attribute values on product listing
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I'm looking for the most effective way to get configurable product attribute values on product listing pages, for example color values for a product (from assigned simple products)


Currently looking into utilising `catalog_product_flat_n` table for this purpose, but perhaps there is an easier or more correct approach to do this? I'm trying to avoid using 

    $product->getTypeInstance()->getConfigurableAttributesAsArray()

on every product, as this will be very slow

Thanks