R1D38 SOQL and SOSL Queries in Apex
I’m working through the Apex Basics & Database module on Trailhead.
I learned about using built in sObjects and also about making custom sObjects. Next I learned about how to use DML in order to manipulate records within the system. After getting the basics down we dove into SOQL.
SOQL
SOQL is shot for Salesforce Object Query Language. If you are familiar with SQL you will feel right at home. SOQL makes querying data very simple. One pretty poweful feature is the ability to run inline queries and return the results to a variable. In pretty much every other language you would need to create a cursor and iterate over the results in order to read the values from a database. In SOQL you simply assing the results to an array.# Python Exampleconn = sqlite3.connect(’example.db’) c = conn.cursor() results = c.execute(“SELECT Name, Phone FROM Accounts”)
for row in results: print row
# SOQL Example Accounts[] accts = [SELECT Name, Phone FROM Account];
I think this bit trips up a lot of new programmers so it is great to see how SOQL makes it easy.
One thing worth noting is that you canno use the handy “SELECT *” that is found in SQL.
Unlike other SQL languages, you can’t specify * for all fields. You must specify every field you want to get explicitly. If you try to access a field you haven’t specified in the SELECT clause, you’ll get an error because the field hasn’t been retrieved.The built in developer console in Salesforce makes it very easy to run queries and inspect your objects without writing any additional code.
Cool things about SOQL:
- you can pass in variables directly into a query
- you can use dot notation to get related records in a query
- you can use for loops in queries
SOSL
SOSL is short for Salesforce Object Search Language and it allows you to do robust full text search on records similar to Apache Lucene. The main difference is that it allows you to search accross multiple objects instead of just a single one.FIND 'SearchQuery' [IN SearchGroup] [RETURNING ObjectsAndFields]In order to pass a variable into the search query, you use the colon symbol.
public class MultiSearch { public static List> searchAll (String searchTerm) { List
> searchList = [FIND :searchTerm IN ALL FIELDS RETURNING Account(Name),Contact(FirstName,LastName)]; return searchList; } }
Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.
Check out some more stuff to read down below.
Most popular posts this month
- Now What?
- SQLite DB Migrations with PRAGMA user_version
- Setting up ANTLR4 on Windows
- Dagger Feels Like Magic
- Types and Roles If Not Exists in PostgreSQL
Recent Favorite Blog Posts
This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.
- Useful Bluesky Tools from Robb Knight • Posts • Atom Feed
- Re: Bluesky from Colin Devroe
- From the Red Hell to the Sky of Blue from Straphanger
- We don’t need to use what we make from Derek Sivers blog
- Ubuntu Summit 2024: A joyful experience filled with sorrow from Planet KDE | English
- Sabotage from jwz
- What if My Tribe Is Wrong? from Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings
- It’s the “1998” of the AI Revolution. So Why Can I Safely Ignore It? from The Internet Review
Articles from blogs I follow around the net
[RODEN] Enrique Allen
Roden Readers — The first memory I have of Enrique Allen is from the campus of Stanford. He had just graduated from the d.school and was teaching part-time. We were about to start working together. He was all bounding lightness. That’s the first image: Jum…
via Craig Mod — Writer + Photographer November 21, 202417/11/2024
# Back in May I wrote about being inspired to write a track based on a YouTube comment. I recorded a test not long after and built on that into June. Then the breakdown struck and I had a massive crisis of confidence alongside the depression and anxiety. I …
via Colin Walker - Daily Feed November 21, 2024Cold reading an ADHD affliction
I'm sure there are truly pathological cases of ADHD out there, and maybe taking amphetamines really is a magic pill for some folks. But there clearly is also an entire cottage industry cropping up around convincing perfectly normal people that they …
via David Heinemeier Hansson November 20, 2024Generated by openring