Salesforce.com Object Query Language (SOQL)

Use the Salesforce.com Object Query Language (SOQL) to construct simple but powerful query strings in the following environments:

In the queryString parameter in the query() call
In Apex statements
In Visualforce controllers and getter methods
In the Schema Explorer of the Eclipse Toolkit

Similar to the SELECT command in Structured Query Language (SQL), SOQL allows you to specify the source object (such as Account), a list of fields to retrieve, and conditions for selecting rows in the source object.

Note

SOQL does not support all advanced features of the SQL SELECT command. For example, you cannot use SOQL to perform arbitrary join operations, use wildcards in field lists, or use calculation expressions.

SOQL uses the SELECT statement combined with filtering statements to return sets of data which may optionally be ordered:

SELECT one or more fields 
FROM an object 
WHERE filter statements and, optionally, results are ordered

For example, the following SOQL query returns the value of the AccountId and Name field for all Account records if the value of Name is Sandy:

SELECT AccountId, Name
FROM Account
WHERE Name = 'Sandy'

Note

Apex requires that you surround SOQL and SOSL statements with square brackets in order to use them on the fly. Additionally, Apex script variables and expressions can be used if preceded by a colon (:).

For a complete description of the syntax, see SOQL SELECT Syntax.