How to create a a list using a custom object and custom fields

Question

I want to create a list that uses a a custom object called Animal__c and I want the list to consist of only Dogs, i have a field called 'species__c' which is text based, all the animals in Animal__c are either 'Dog' or 'Cat'. How do i make this, I am relatively new to Apex, and the tutorials on lists are not helping me out too much. Thanks in advanced

Answer 1

Jordan, Welcome to SFSE.

1) How to work with Lists in salesforce : https://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/apexcode/Content/apex_methods_system_list.htm

2) create a list that uses a a custom object called Animal__c

Approach 1:

Advantage: Very specific query helps the system to get selective records instead of pulling all the records from animal object.

Disadvantage: Too specific that you need to alter your query/ add another query to pull Cat/Tiger species

//Create a new list of animal__c to hold just Dog species.
List<animal__c> Dog_list = new List<animal__c>();

//Query the existing database to get only dogs 
Dog_list = [select species__c from animal__c where species__c =: 'Dog'];

(or)

Approach 2:

Advantage: Query is more wide with no where filters there by you can add more if conditions and create a cat_List or Tiger_list without having to use more queries.

Disadvantage: Very slow system when you have too many records in the animal object.

// Query the Database and get all species in the animal object.
List<animal__c> All_animal_list = [select species__c from animal__c];
//Iterate through each animal in your list 
for(animal__c animal : All_animal_list ){
    //Check if species of each animal == Dog
    if(animal.species__c == 'Dog'){
       //add the animal to the Dog_list.
       Dog_list.add(animal);
    }
}

Best route:

1) Use where clause to make your query selective based on your needs eg: you need a list for cats and one for dogs

List<animal__c> cat_list = new List<animal__c>();
List<animal__c> dog_list = new List<animal__c>();
List<animal__c> all_species_list = new List<animal__c>();
String[] all_species_I_Need = new String[]{'Cat', 'Dog'};

all_species_list  = [select species__c from animal__c where species__c IN: all_species_I_Need];

for(animal__c animal : all_species_list){
if(animal.species__c == 'Dog'){
dog_list.add(animal);
}
else if( animal.species__c == 'Cat'){
cat_list.add(animal);
}
}