Apex - DML

In this chapter, we will discuss how to perform the different Database Modification Functionalities in Salesforce. There are two says with which we can perform the functionalities.

DML Statements

DML are the actions which are performed in order to perform insert, update, delete, upsert, restoring records, merging records, or converting leads operation.

DML is one of the most important part in Apex as almost every business case involves the changes and modifications to database.

Database Methods

All operations which you can perform using DML statements can be performed using Database methods as well. Database methods are the system methods which you can use to perform DML operations. Database methods provide more flexibility as compared to DML Statements.

In this chapter, we will be looking at the first approach using DML Statements. We will look at the Database Methods in a subsequent chapter.

DML Statements

Let us now consider the instance of the Chemical supplier company again. Our Invoice records have fields as Status, Amount Paid, Amount Remaining, Next Pay Date and Invoice Number. Invoices which have been created today and have their status as 'Pending', should be updated to 'Paid'.

Insert Operation

Insert operation is used to create new records in Database. You can create records of any Standard or Custom object using the Insert DML statement.

Example

We can create new records in APEX_Invoice__c object as new invoices are being generated for new customer orders every day. We will create a Customer record first and then we can create an Invoice record for that new Customer record.

// fetch the invoices created today, Note, you must have at least one invoice 
// created today

List<apex_invoice__c> invoiceList = [SELECT id, Name, APEX_Status__c,
   createdDate FROM APEX_Invoice__c WHERE createdDate = today];

// create List to hold the updated invoice records
List<apex_invoice__c> updatedInvoiceList = new List<apex_invoice__c>();
APEX_Customer__c objCust = new APEX_Customer__C();
objCust.Name = 'Test ABC';

//DML for Inserting the new Customer Records
insert objCust;
for (APEX_Invoice__c objInvoice: invoiceList) {
   if (objInvoice.APEX_Status__c == 'Pending') {
      objInvoice.APEX_Status__c = 'Paid';
      updatedInvoiceList.add(objInvoice);
   }
}

// DML Statement to update the invoice status
update updatedInvoiceList;

// Prints the value of updated invoices
System.debug('List has been updated and updated values are' + updatedInvoiceList);

// Inserting the New Records using insert DML statement
APEX_Invoice__c objNewInvoice = new APEX_Invoice__c();
objNewInvoice.APEX_Status__c = 'Pending';
objNewInvoice.APEX_Amount_Paid__c = 1000;
objNewInvoice.APEX_Customer__c = objCust.id;

// DML which is creating the new Invoice record which will be linked with newly
// created Customer record
insert objNewInvoice;
System.debug('New Invoice Id is '+objNewInvoice.id+' and the Invoice Number is'
   + objNewInvoice.Name);

Update Operation

Update operation is to perform updates on existing records. In this example, we will be updating the Status field of an existing Invoice record to 'Paid'.

Example

// Update Statement Example for updating the invoice status. You have to create
and Invoice records before executing this code. This program is updating the
record which is at index 0th position of the List.

// First, fetch the invoice created today
List<apex_invoice__c> invoiceList = [SELECT id, Name, APEX_Status__c,
createdDate FROM APEX_Invoice__c];
List<apex_invoice__c> updatedInvoiceList = new List<apex_invoice__c>();

// Update the first record in the List
invoiceList[0].APEX_Status__c = 'Pending';
updatedInvoiceList.add(invoiceList[0]);

// DML Statement to update the invoice status
update updatedInvoiceList;

// Prints the value of updated invoices
System.debug('List has been updated and updated values of records are' 
   + updatedInvoiceList[0]);

Upsert Operation

Upsert Operation is used to perform an update operation and if the records to be updated are not present in database, then create new records as well.

Example

Suppose, the customer records in Customer object need to be updated. We will update the existing Customer record if it is already present, else create a new one. This will be based on the value of field APEX_External_Id__c. This field will be our field to identify if the records are already present or not.

Note − Before executing this code, please create a record in Customer object with the external Id field value as '12341' and then execute the code given below −

// Example for upserting the Customer records
List<apex_customer__c> CustomerList = new List<apex_customer__c>();
for (Integer i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
   apex_customer__c objcust=new apex_customer__c(name = 'Test' +i,
   apex_external_id__c='1234' +i);
   customerlist.add(objcust);
} //Upserting the Customer Records

upsert CustomerList;

System.debug('Code iterated for 10 times and created 9 records as one record with 
   External Id 12341 is already present');

for (APEX_Customer_c objCustomer: CustomerList) {
   if (objCustomer.APEX_External_Id_c == '12341') {
      system.debug('The Record which is already present is '+objCustomer);
   }
}

Delete Operation

You can perform the delete operation using the Delete DML.

Example

In this case, we will delete the invoices which have been created for the testing purpose, that is the ones which contain the name as 'Test'.

You can execute this snippet from the Developer console as well without creating the class.

// fetch the invoice created today
List<apex_invoice__c> invoiceList = [SELECT id, Name, APEX_Status__c,
createdDate FROM APEX_Invoice__c WHERE createdDate = today];
List<apex_invoice__c> updatedInvoiceList = new List<apex_invoice__c>();
APEX_Customer__c objCust = new APEX_Customer__C();
objCust.Name = 'Test';

// Inserting the Customer Records
insert objCust;
for (APEX_Invoice__c objInvoice: invoiceList) {
   if (objInvoice.APEX_Status__c == 'Pending') {
      objInvoice.APEX_Status__c = 'Paid';
      updatedInvoiceList.add(objInvoice);
   }
}

// DML Statement to update the invoice status
update updatedInvoiceList;

// Prints the value of updated invoices
System.debug('List has been updated and updated values are' + updatedInvoiceList);

// Inserting the New Records using insert DML statement
APEX_Invoice__c objNewInvoice = new APEX_Invoice__c();
objNewInvoice.APEX_Status__c = 'Pending';
objNewInvoice.APEX_Amount_Paid__c = 1000;
objNewInvoice.APEX_Customer__c = objCust.id;

// DML which is creating the new record
insert objNewInvoice;
System.debug('New Invoice Id is' + objNewInvoice.id);

// Deleting the Test invoices from Database
// fetch the invoices which are created for Testing, Select name which Customer Name
// is Test.
List<apex_invoice__c> invoiceListToDelete = [SELECT id FROM APEX_Invoice__c
   WHERE APEX_Customer__r.Name = 'Test'];

// DML Statement to delete the Invoices
delete invoiceListToDelete;
System.debug('Success, '+invoiceListToDelete.size()+' Records has been deleted');

Undelete Operation

You can undelete the record which has been deleted and is present in Recycle bin. All the relationships which the deleted record has, will also be restored.

Example

Suppose, the Records deleted in the previous example need to be restored. This can be achieved using the following example. The code in the previous example has been modified for this example.

// fetch the invoice created today
List<apex_invoice__c> invoiceList = [SELECT id, Name, APEX_Status__c,
createdDate FROM APEX_Invoice__c WHERE createdDate = today];
List<apex_invoice__c> updatedInvoiceList = new List<apex_invoice__c>();
APEX_Customer__c objCust = new APEX_Customer__C();
objCust.Name = 'Test';

// Inserting the Customer Records
insert objCust;
for (APEX_Invoice__c objInvoice: invoiceList) {
   if (objInvoice.APEX_Status__c == 'Pending') {
      objInvoice.APEX_Status__c = 'Paid';
      updatedInvoiceList.add(objInvoice);
   }
}

// DML Statement to update the invoice status
update updatedInvoiceList;

// Prints the value of updated invoices
System.debug('List has been updated and updated values are' + updatedInvoiceList);

// Inserting the New Records using insert DML statement
APEX_Invoice__c objNewInvoice = new APEX_Invoice__c();
objNewInvoice.APEX_Status__c = 'Pending';
objNewInvoice.APEX_Amount_Paid__c = 1000;
objNewInvoice.APEX_Customer__c = objCust.id;

// DML which is creating the new record
insert objNewInvoice;
System.debug('New Invoice Id is '+objNewInvoice.id);

// Deleting the Test invoices from Database
// fetch the invoices which are created for Testing, Select name which Customer Name
// is Test.
List<apex_invoice__c> invoiceListToDelete = [SELECT id FROM APEX_Invoice__c
   WHERE APEX_Customer__r.Name = 'Test'];

// DML Statement to delete the Invoices
delete invoiceListToDelete;
system.debug('Deleted Record Count is ' + invoiceListToDelete.size());
System.debug('Success, '+invoiceListToDelete.size() + 'Records has been deleted');

// Restore the deleted records using undelete statement
undelete invoiceListToDelete;
System.debug('Undeleted Record count is '+invoiceListToDelete.size()+'. This should 
   be same as Deleted Record count');