Apex Developer Guide

Apex Developer Guide
Getting Started with Apex
Writing Apex
Running Apex
Invoking Apex
Anonymous Blocks
Triggers
Bulk Triggers
Trigger Syntax
Trigger Context Variables
Context Variable Considerations
Common Bulk Trigger Idioms
Defining Triggers
Triggers and Merge Statements
Triggers and Recovered Records
Triggers and Order of Execution
Operations That Don't Invoke Triggers
Entity and Field Considerations in Triggers
Triggers for Chatter Objects
Trigger Considerations for Knowledge Articles
Trigger Exceptions
Trigger and Bulk Request Best Practices
Asynchronous Apex
Exposing Apex Methods as SOAP Web Services
Exposing Apex Classes as REST Web Services
Apex Email Service
Using the InboundEmail Object
Visualforce Classes
JavaScript Remoting
Apex in AJAX
Apex Transactions and Governor Limits
Using Salesforce Features with Apex
Integration and Apex Utilities
Debugging, Testing, and Deploying Apex
Apex Language Reference
Appendices
Glossary
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Trigger Context Variables

All triggers define implicit variables that allow developers to access run-time context. These variables are contained in the System.Trigger class.

Variable Usage
isExecuting Returns true if the current context for the Apex code is a trigger, not a Visualforce page, a Web service, or an executeanonymous() API call.
isInsert Returns true if this trigger was fired due to an insert operation, from the Salesforce user interface, Apex, or the API.
isUpdate Returns true if this trigger was fired due to an update operation, from the Salesforce user interface, Apex, or the API.
isDelete Returns true if this trigger was fired due to a delete operation, from the Salesforce user interface, Apex, or the API.
isBefore Returns true if this trigger was fired before any record was saved.
isAfter Returns true if this trigger was fired after all records were saved.
isUndelete Returns true if this trigger was fired after a record is recovered from the Recycle Bin. This recovery can occur after an undelete operation from the Salesforce user interface, Apex, or the API.
new Returns a list of the new versions of the sObject records.

This sObject list is only available in insert, update, and undelete triggers, and the records can only be modified in before triggers.
newMap A map of IDs to the new versions of the sObject records.

This map is only available in before update, after insert, after update, and after undelete triggers.

old Returns a list of the old versions of the sObject records.

This sObject list is only available in update and delete triggers.
oldMap A map of IDs to the old versions of the sObject records.

This map is only available in update and delete triggers.

operationType Returns an enum of type System.TriggerOperation corresponding to the current operation.

Possible values of the System.TriggerOperation enum are: BEFORE_INSERT, BEFORE_UPDATE, BEFORE_DELETE,AFTER_INSERT, AFTER_UPDATE, AFTER_DELETE, and AFTER_UNDELETE. If you vary your programming logic based on different trigger types, consider using the switch statement with different permutations of unique trigger execution enum states.
size The total number of records in a trigger invocation, both old and new.

The record firing a trigger can include an invalid field value, such as a formula that divides by zero. In this case, the field value is set to null in these variables:

  • new
  • newMap
  • old
  • oldMap

Note

For example, in this simple trigger, Trigger.new is a list of sObjects and can be iterated over in a for loop. It can also be used as a bind variable in the IN clause of a SOQL query.

This trigger uses Boolean context variables like Trigger.isBefore and Trigger.isDelete to define code that only executes for specific trigger conditions: