Extracting values from Associations

Question

I have data stored in a list of Associations. I would like to extract the values only for multiple keys. I was hoping to do it the same way list[[All,{1,2}]] can be used. But when I use this syntax with Associations I extract Key-value pairs instead of values. Is their a terse syntax for what I want?

assoc = {
   <|"a" -> 1, "b" -> 2, "c" -> 3|>,
   <|"a" -> 4, "b" -> 5, "c" -> 6|>,
   <|"a" -> 7, "b" -> 8, "c" -> 9|>
   };

assoc[[All, "a"]]

(* {1,4,7} *)

assoc[[All, {"a", "b"}]]

{<|"a" -> 1, "b" -> 2|>, <|"a" -> 4, "b" -> 5|>, <|"a" -> 7, 
  "b" -> 8|>} 

Answer 1

Does this do what you want?

Values[assoc[[All, {"a", "b"}]]]

{{1, 2}, {4, 5}, {7, 8}}

Answer 2

Upon request I post my comment as an answer.

The documentation states under examples:

Lookup threads over lists of associations:

Lookup[{"a", "b"}] @ assoc

{{1, 2}, {4, 5}, {7, 8}}