Unable to check a blank field in before trigger

Question

Hi I have built a trigger to throw error if a field is blank upon certain condition.

Since it is for large number of country i used trigger instead of validation rule.

However I tried to test it but the trigger did not throw the error.

Please find the trigger below

trigger TR_REMA_OPP on Opportunity (before insert,before update) {

for(Opportunity opps : trigger.new){

    if((opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'ARGENTINA' || opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'AUSTRALIA' || opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'AUSTRIA' || opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'BELGIUM' || opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'BRAZIL' || opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'CANADA' || opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'CHINA'
         || opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'DENMARK' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'FRANCE'  ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'GERMANY' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'HONG KONG' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'INDIA' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'INDONESIA' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'IRELAND' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'IRLAND' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'ITALIA' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'ITALY' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'JAPAN' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'KOREA (NORTH)' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'KOREA (SOUTH)' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'LAOS' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'LUXEMBOURG' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'MEXICO' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'NETHERLANDS' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'NEW CALEDONIA' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'NEW ZEALAND' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'NICARAGUA' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'NORWAY' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'PARAGUAY' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'PERU' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'PHILIPPINES' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'POLAND' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'PORTUGAL' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'REPUBLIC OF SAN MARINO' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'REUNION ISLAND' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'SINGAPORE' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'SPAIN' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'SWEDEN' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'SWITZERLAND' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'UNITED KINGDOM' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'UNITED STATES OF AMERICA' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'URUGUAY'   ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'VENEZUELA' ||
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c !='VIETNAM' || 
            opps.AccountHQCountry__c != 'ZIMBABWE') && opps.Probability >= 75 && opps.Financed__c == ''){



                    opps.addError('Financed is mandatory to update');


    }
}

}

On the last step I also tried qpps.Financed__c.addError('this field is mandatory to update');

Stll did not worked.

opps.AccountHQCountry__c is a formula text field which will display the accounts country. Based upon the condition i set the account country to a different country to make sure the condition are met and the probability to above 75 still did not worked.

Please advise.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Formulas are in a "before" update state in a "before" trigger; for new records, this will be a null value, and for updates, will be the calculated value before saving. Use an "after" trigger instead. They will be correctly calculated only in an after trigger.

Also, note that field != A || field != B will always be true (if the field is equal to A, it will not be equal to B, and vice versa). Use && instead.

Also, you could improve performance by simply saying:

Set<String> countries = new Set<String> {
  'ARGENTINA', 'AUSTRALIA', ...
};
if(!countries.contains(opps.AccountHQCountry__c)) {
  opps.addError('...');
}

Empty fields loaded from a database are always null, never an empty string:

opps.Financed__c == null

Probability is exposed as a decimal percentage (value / 100). You should compare against 0.75:

opps.Probability > 0.75