sObject Types

For example:

Account a = new Account();
MyCustomObject__c co = new MyCustomObject__c();

Similar to SOAP API, Apex allows the use of the generic sObject abstract type to represent any object. The sObject data type can be used in code that processes different types of sObjects.

The new operator still requires a concrete sObject type, so all instances are specific sObjects. For example:

sObject s = new Account();

You can also use casting between the generic sObject type and the specific sObject type. For example:

// Cast the generic variable s from the example above
// into a specific account and account variable a
Account a = (Account)s;
// The following generates a runtime error
Contact c = (Contact)s;

Object obj = s;
// and
a = (Account)obj;

DML operations work on variables declared as the generic sObject data type as well as with regular sObjects.

sObject variables are initialized to null, but can be assigned a valid object reference with the new operator. For example:

Account a = new Account();

Developers can also specify initial field values with comma-separated name = value pairs when instantiating a new sObject. For example:

Account a = new Account(name = 'Acme', billingcity = 'San Francisco');

For information on accessing existing sObjects from the Lightning Platform database, see “SOQL and SOSL Queries” in the SOQL and SOSL Reference.

String errorMsg = System.Label.generic_error;