Working with Polymorphic Relationships in SOQL Queries

A polymorphic relationship is a relationship between objects where a referenced object can be one of several different types. For example, the Who relationship field of a Task can be a Contact or a Lead.

The following describes how to use SOQL queries with polymorphic relationships in Apex. If you want more general information on polymorphic relationships, see Understanding Relationship Fields and Polymorphic Fields in the SOQL and SOSL Reference.

You can use SOQL queries that reference polymorphic fields in Apex to get results that depend on the object type referenced by the polymorphic field. One approach is to filter your results using the Type qualifier. This example queries Events that are related to an Account or Opportunity via the What field.

1List<Event> events = [SELECT Description FROM Event WHERE What.Type IN ('Account', 'Opportunity')];

Another approach would be to use the TYPEOF clause in the SOQL SELECT statement. This example also queries Events that are related to an Account or Opportunity via the What field.

1List<Event> events = [SELECT TYPEOF What WHEN Account THEN Phone WHEN Opportunity THEN Amount END FROM Event];

These queries return a list of sObjects where the relationship field references the desired object types.

If you need to access the referenced object in a polymorphic relationship, you can use the instanceof keyword to determine the object type. The following example uses instanceof to determine whether an Account or Opportunity is related to an Event.

1Event myEvent = eventFromQuery;
2if (myEvent.What instanceof Account) {
3    // myEvent.What references an Account, so process accordingly
4} else if (myEvent.What instanceof Opportunity) {
5    // myEvent.What references an Opportunity, so process accordingly
6}

Note that you must assign the referenced sObject that the query returns to a variable of the appropriate type before you can pass it to another method. The following example

Queries for User or Group owners of Merchandise__c custom objects using a SOQL query with a TYPEOF clause
Uses instanceof to determine the owner type
Assigns the owner objects to User or Group type variables before passing them to utility methods

1public class PolymorphismExampleClass {
2
3    // Utility method for a User
4    public static void processUser(User theUser) {
5        System.debug('Processed User');
6    }
7    
8    // Utility method for a Group
9    public static void processGroup(Group theGroup) {
10        System.debug('Processed Group');
11    }
12
13    public static void processOwnersOfMerchandise() {
14        // Select records based on the Owner polymorphic relationship field
15        List<Merchandise__c> merchandiseList = [SELECT TYPEOF Owner WHEN User THEN LastName WHEN Group THEN Email END FROM Merchandise__c];	
16        // We now have a list of Merchandise__c records owned by either a User or Group
17        for (Merchandise__c merch: merchandiseList) {
18            // We can use instanceof to check the polymorphic relationship type
19            // Note that we have to assign the polymorphic reference to the appropriate
20            // sObject type before passing to a method
21            if (merch.Owner instanceof User) {
22                User userOwner = merch.Owner;
23                processUser(userOwner);
24            } else if (merch.Owner instanceof Group) {
25                Group groupOwner = merch.Owner;
26                processGroup(groupOwner);
27            }
28        }
29    }
30}

Apex Developer Guide

Working with Polymorphic Relationships in SOQL Queries