Force.com SOQL and SOSL Reference

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Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL)

Use the Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL) to construct simple but powerful query strings in the following environments:
  • In the queryString parameter in the query() call
  • In Apex statements
  • In Visualforce controllers and getter methods
  • In the Schema Explorer of the Force.com IDE

Similar to the SELECT command in Structured Query Language (SQL), SOQL allows you to specify the source object (such as Account), a list of fields to retrieve, and conditions for selecting rows in the source object.

SOQL doesn’t support all advanced features of the SQL SELECT command. For example, you can’t use SOQL to perform arbitrary join operations, use wildcards in field lists, or use calculation expressions.

Note

SOQL uses the SELECT statement combined with filtering statements to return sets of data, which can optionally be ordered:

For example, the following SOQL query returns the value of the Id and Name field for all Account records if the value of Name is Sandy:

Apex requires that you surround SOQL and SOSL statements with square brackets in order to use them on the fly. Additionally, Apex script variables and expressions can be used if preceded by a colon (:).

Note

For a complete description of the syntax, see SOQL SELECT Syntax.