Anonymous Blocks

Compile and execute anonymous blocks using one of the following:

• Developer Console
• Salesforce extensions for Visual Studio Code
• The executeAnonymous() SOAP API call:
  1ExecuteAnonymousResult executeAnonymous(String code)

You can use anonymous blocks to quickly evaluate Apex in the Developer Console or using the Salesforce Extensions for Visual Studio Code and Code Builder.

Note the following about the content of an anonymous block (for executeAnonymous(), the code String):

• Can include user-defined methods and exceptions.
• User-defined methods can’t include the keyword static.
• You don’t have to manually commit any database changes.
• If an Apex trigger within an anonymous block completes successfully, the changes are committed to the database only after all operations in the block finish executing and don’t cause any errors. If your Apex trigger doesn’t complete successfully, any changes made to the database in the anonymous block are rolled back.
• Unlike classes and triggers, anonymous blocks execute as the current user and can fail to compile if the code violates the user's object- and field-level permissions.
• Don’t have a scope other than local. For example, although it’s legal to use the global access modifier, it has no meaning. The scope of the method is limited to the anonymous block.
• When you define a class or interface (a custom type) in an anonymous block, it’s considered virtual by default when the anonymous block executes. This fact is true even if your custom type wasn’t defined with the virtual modifier. To avoid this from happening, save your class or interface in Salesforce. (Classes and interfaces defined in an anonymous block aren’t saved in your org.)

Even though a user-defined method can refer to itself or later methods without the need for forward declarations, variables can’t be referenced before their actual declaration. In the following example, the Integer int must be declared while myProcedure1 doesn’t:

1Integer int1 = 0;
2
3void myProcedure1() {
4    myProcedure2();
5}
6
7void myProcedure2() {
8    int1++;
9}
10
11myProcedure1();

The returned result for anonymous blocks includes:

• Status information for the compile and execute phases of the call, including any errors that occur
• The debug log content, including the output of any calls to the System.debug method (see Debug Log)
• The Apex stack trace of any uncaught code execution exceptions, including the class, method, and line number for each call stack element

For more information, see executeAnonymous(), Working with Logs in the Developer Console, and Salesforce extensions for Visual Studio Code and Code Builder.