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
SOQL and SOSL Queries
SOQL For Loops
sObject Collections
Lists of sObjects
Sorting Lists of sObjects
Expanding sObject and List Expressions
Sets of Objects
Maps of sObjects
Dynamic Apex
Apex Security and Sharing
Custom Settings
Running Apex
Debugging, Testing, and Deploying Apex
Apex Language Reference
Appendices
Glossary
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Expanding sObject and List Expressions

As in Java, sObject and list expressions can be expanded with method references and list expressions, respectively, to form new expressions.

In the following example, a new variable containing the length of the new account name is assigned to acctNameLength. 
1Integer acctNameLength = new Account[]{new Account(Name='Acme')}[0].Name.length();

In the above, new Account[] generates a list.

The list is populated with one element by the new statement {new Account(name='Acme')}.

Item 0, the first item in the list, is then accessed by the next part of the string [0].

The name of the sObject in the list is accessed, followed by the method returning the length name.length().

In the following example, a name that has been shifted to lower case is returned. The SOQL statement returns a list of which the first element (at index 0) is accessed through [0]. Next, the Name field is accessed and converted to lowercase with this expression .Name.toLowerCase().
1String nameChange = [SELECT Name FROM Account][0].Name.toLowerCase();