Query.apex

Query.apex provides a flexible and dynamic way of building a SOQL/SOSL query on the Salesforce platform.

Why Query.apex

Although Salesforce provides Database.query method to dynamically execute a query from a string, it is far from easy to construct such a string in a bug-free, structural and flexible way. Query.apex is made to improve the flexibility of the code and consequently enhance the productivity of the development.

Features

Allows object oriented programming paradigm and function chaining
Supports complex queries including parent/child relationships, and nested conditions in a flexible way
Prevents SOQL injections, without manually escaping the string variables
Supports aggregate functions including group by methods
Manages the namespace of the object names and field names, while also provides the Object/Field Level Security checking
SOSL features are in active development. Please follow https://github.com/PropicSignifi/Query.apex/projects/1 for the progress

Examples

Get all accounts

This will return a list of all Accounts from the database.

By default it will select only the Id field.

List<Account> accounts = new Query('Account').run();

Select all fields

This will query all Accounts from the database, selecting all fields.

List<Account> accounts =
    new Query('Account').
    selectAllFields().
    run();

Select all user readable fields

This will query all Accounts from the database, selecting all fields which the user has read access on.

List<Account> accounts =
    new Query('Account').
    selectReadableFields().
    run();

Select specific fields

This will query all Accounts from the database, selecting specified fields only.

List<Account> accounts =
    new Query('Account').
    selectField('Name').
    selectFields('CreatedById').
    selectFields('CreatedDate, LastModifiedDate').
    selectFields(new List<String>{'LastActivityDate', 'LastViewedDate'}).
    run();

Get an account based on its Id

This will query the Accounts with a specific Id, and return only one SObject as a result.

Account account =
    (Account)new Query('Account').
    byId('001O000001HMWZVIA5').
    fetch();

Get a list of contacts based on a foreign key

This will query the Contacts given the foreign key AccountId.

List<Contact> contacts =
    new Query('Contact').
    lookup('AccountId', '001O000001HMWZVIA5').
    run();

Get a list of Id of the query result

This will query all the Accounts and return a list of Id as a result.

List<Account> accounts =
    new Query('Account').
    toIdList();

Get the executable query string

If you want to get the raw query string intead of executing the query, you can use the toQueryString method.

String queryString = new Query('Account').
    selectFields('Name').
    addConditionLike('Name', '%Sam%').
    toQueryString();

Database.query(queryString);

Debug

You can use the debug method to print the current query string to the log.

new Query('Account').
    selectFields('Name').
    debug().
    addConditionLike('Name', '%Sam%').
    debug()
    run();

Enforce security check

By default, when read permission of an object/field is missing, we will print a warning to the log. But we can change it to an exception if that's needed.

new Query('Account').
    enforceSecurity().
    selectFields('Name').
    run();

You may also call the static method enforceGlobalSecurity to enforce exception on all Query instances.

Query.enforceGlobalSecurity();

new Query('Account').
    selectFields('Name').
    run();

Select parent fields

This will select all the fields from the parent object Account.

List<Contact> contacts =
    new Query('Contact').
    selectAllFields('Account').
    run();

This will select all user readable fields from the parent object Account.

List<Contact> contacts =
    new Query('Contact').
    selectReadableFields('Account').
    run();

Query with simple conditions

This will query all the accounts whose 'FirstName' is 'Sam' and 'LastName' is 'Tarly'.

By default, all the conditions are joined by the 'AND' operator.

List<Account> accounts =
    new Query('Account').
    addConditionEq('Name', 'Sam').
    addConditionLt('NumberOfEmployees', 10).
    run();

Query with complex conditions

For more complicated conditions, we can use the method 'conditionXX' to create a condition variable, before using the 'doOr' method or 'doAnd' boolean operation methods to join these conditions.

List<Account> accounts =
    new Query('Account').
    addCondition(
        Query.doAnd(
            Query.doOr(
                Query.conditionEq('FirstName', 'Sam'),
                Query.conditionEq('Id', '001O000001HMWZVIA5')
            ),
            Query.conditionLe('NumberOfEmployees', 15)
        )
    ).
    run();

Query with date literal conditions

We can also use date literals in conditions.

List<Account> accounts =
    new Query('Account').
    addConditionLe('LastModifiedDate', Query.TODAY).
    addConditionEq('CreatedDate', Query.LAST_N_WEEKS(3)).
    run();

Query with conditions with INCLUDES/EXCLUDES operator

INCLUDES and EXCLUDES operator can be used on multi-picklist fields.

The following example is querying QuickText with the Channel field that includes both the two values at the same time:

List<QuickText> result = new Query('QuickText').
    addConditionIncludes('Channel', 'MyChannel;OtherChannel').
    run();

In contrast, this example is a condition that includes any of the two values:

List<QuickText> result = new Query('QuickText').
    addConditionIncludes('Channel', new List<String>{'MyChannel', 'OtherChannel'}).
    run();

Query with subqueries

Query.apex also allows selecting child relationships (subqueries), in a method chain style similar to the conditions.

List<Account> accounts =
    new Query('Account').
    addSubquery(
        Query.subquery('Contacts').
        addConditionEq('FirstName', 'Sam').
        addConditionIn('LastName', new List<String>{'Tarly'})
    ).
    run();

Query with semi-join

It is also possible to have a subquery in the condition, known as the semi-join.

List<Account> accounts =
    new Query('Account').
    lookup('Id', new Query('Opportunity').
            selectField('AccountId')).
    run();

Simple aggregate functions

Aggregate functions including 'count', 'countDistinct', 'max', 'min', 'avg', 'sum' are supported. Optional alias can be provided as the second parameter. To get the aggregate result, user needs to call the method 'aggregate()'.

The 'aggregate' method returns a list of 'AggregateResult' items.

AggregateResult result =
    new Query('Account').
    count('Name', 'countName').
    countDistinct('Rating', 'countRating').
    max('NumberOfEmployees', 'maxEmployee').
    min('NumberOfEmployees', 'minEmployee').
    avg('NumberOfEmployees', 'avgEmployee').
    sum('NumberOfEmployees', 'sumEmployee').
    aggregate()[0];

Integer countName = (Integer)result.get('countName');
Integer countRating = (Integer)result.get('countRating');
Integer maxEmployee = (Integer)result.get('maxEmployee');
Integer minEmployee = (Integer)result.get('minEmployee');
Decimal avgEmployee = (Decimal)result.get('avgEmployee');
Integer sumEmployee = (Integer)result.get('sumEmployee');

In this example, 'countName', 'maxEmployee', and so forth are the alias for the aggregate functions. Since there is no group by clauses used, the returned list has one and only one item. You can get the value of an aggregated field using the 'get' method in the first 'AggregateResult' item.

Aggregate functions combined with GROUP BY clause

Aggregate functions are more useful combined with the 'groupBy' method, so that each group can have its own aggregate result. Similar to the simple aggregate functions, the 'aggregate' method is needed to get the aggregate results, which will return a list of 'AggregateResult' items.

We can also select fields that appear in the group by list. Similar to the methods 'count', 'max', etc, optional alias as the second argument is allowed in the 'selectField' method.

List<AggregateResult> results =
    new Query('Account').
    selectField('Rating', 'rate').
    count('Name', 'countName').
    max('NumberOfEmployees', 'maxEmployees').
    min('NumberOfEmployees', 'minEmployees').
    avg('NumberOfEmployees', 'avgEmployees').
    sum('NumberOfEmployees', 'sumEmployees').
    groupBy('Rating').
    aggregate();

for (AggregateResult result : results) {
    System.debug('Rating: ' + result.get('rate'));
    System.debug('maxEmployees: ' + result.get('maxEmployees'));
    System.debug('minEmployees: ' + result.get('minEmployees'));
    System.debug('avgEmployees: ' + result.get('avgEmployees'));
    System.debug('sumEmployees: ' + result.get('sumEmployees'));
}

Note that we can only select fields that appear in the group by method. In this example, only the 'Rating' field is in the group by clause, so only the 'Rating' field can be selected.

Aggregate functions with HAVING clauses

With HAVING clauses, aggregate functions can be even more powerful. See this example:

Suppose we have a parent object Account, and a child object Opportunity, I want to query all the Accounts with at least one Opportunity. If we use child relationship query (subquery), we might still get all the Accounts, with some of them having the Opportunity child as an empty list. And then we need to do the filter manually, removing the Accounts with empty Opportunity list. Apparently, such way costs unnecessary memory.

But we can actually do it in one query, using GROUP BY and HAVING clauses.

List<AggregateResult> results =
    new Query('Opportunity').
    selectField('AccountId').
    count('Name', 'countName').
    groupBy('AccountId').
    addHaving(Query.conditionGe('Count(Name)', 1)).
    aggregate();

// Loop the aggregate result to get the account ids
List<Id> accountIds = new List<Id>();
for (AggregateResult result : results) {
    accountIds.add((Id)result.get('AccountId'));
}

PropicSignifi/Query.apex