Apex Developer Guide

Apex Developer Guide
Getting Started with Apex
Writing Apex
Data Types and Variables
Control Flow Statements
Classes, Objects, and Interfaces
Working with Data in Apex
Working with sObjects
Data Manipulation Language
How DML Works
Adding and Retrieving Data With DML
DML Statements vs. Database Class Methods
DML Operations As Atomic Transactions
DML Operations
Inserting and Updating Records
Relating Records by Using an External ID
Creating Parent and Child Records in a Single Statement Using Foreign Keys
Upserting Records
Merging Records
Deleting Records
Restoring Deleted Records
Converting Leads
Exception Handling
More About DML
Locking Records
SOQL and SOSL Queries
SOQL For Loops
sObject Collections
Dynamic Apex
Apex Security and Sharing
Custom Settings
Running Apex
Debugging, Testing, and Deploying Apex
Apex Language Reference
Appendices
Glossary
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Inserting and Updating Records

Using DML, you can insert new records and commit them to the database. Similarly, you can update the field values of existing records.

This example inserts three account records and updates an existing account record. First, three Account sObjects are created and added to a list. An insert statement bulk inserts the list of accounts as an argument. Then, the second account record is updated, the billing city is updated, and the update statement is called to persist the change in the database.

Inserting Related Records

You can insert records related to existing records if a relationship has already been defined between the two objects, such as a lookup or master-detail relationship. A record is associated with a related record through a foreign key ID. For example, when inserting a new contact, you can specify the contact’s related account record by setting the value of the AccountId field.

This example adds a contact to an account (the related record) by setting the AccountId field on the contact. Contact and Account are linked through a lookup relationship.

Updating Related Records

Fields on related records can't be updated with the same call to the DML operation and require a separate DML call. For example, if inserting a new contact, you can specify the contact's related account record by setting the value of the AccountId field. However, you can't change the account's name without updating the account itself with a separate DML call. Similarly, when updating a contact, if you also want to update the contact’s related account, you must make two DML calls. The following example updates a contact and its related account using two update statements.