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Expanding sObject and List Expressions

As in Java, sObject and list expressions can be expanded with method references and list expressions, respectively, to form new expressions.

In the following example, a new variable containing the length of the new account name is assigned to acctNameLength.

1Integer acctNameLength = new Account[]{new Account(Name='Acme')}[0].Name.length();

In the above, new Account[] generates a list.

The list is populated with one element by the new statement {new Account(name='Acme')}.

Item 0, the first item in the list, is then accessed by the next part of the string [0].

The name of the sObject in the list is accessed, followed by the method returning the length name.length().

In the following example, a name that has been shifted to lower case is returned. The SOQL statement returns a list of which the first element (at index 0) is accessed through [0]. Next, the Name field is accessed and converted to lowercase with this expression .Name.toLowerCase().

1String nameChange = [SELECT Name FROM Account][0].Name.toLowerCase();

Apex Developer Guide

Expanding sObject and List Expressions