Salesforce Object Search Language (SOSL) is a powerful search language that Salesforce provides to enable searching for specific data across multiple Salesforce objects. Unlike SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Language), which is used to retrieve records from a single object, SOSL allows for text-based searches across multiple objects simultaneously. Here are some key points about SOSL:

Key Features of SOSL

1. Multi-Object Search: SOSL allows searching across multiple objects (both standard and custom) with a single query.
2. Full-Text Search: SOSL supports full-text search, enabling you to search fields for specific text.
3. Flexible: SOSL is flexible in terms of which fields it searches, including text, number, and email fields.
4. Wildcards: Supports wildcard characters to broaden search criteria.
5. Returning Fields: Unlike SOQL, which specifies fields to return, SOSL returns objects and their ID fields by default. You can also specify fields to return for the queried objects.

SOSL Syntax

A typical SOSL query has the following structure:

FIND 'searchQuery' [IN searchScope] [RETURNING objectsAndFields]

• FIND 'searchQuery': The text to search for. It can include wildcards like * or ?.
• IN searchScope: Optional. Limits the search to a specific scope, such as ALL FIELDS, NAME FIELDS, EMAIL FIELDS, PHONE FIELDS, etc.
• RETURNING objectsAndFields: Specifies which objects and fields to return in the results. This is optional and if omitted, SOSL will return IDs of the matching records.

Examples

Basic SOSL Query

Search for records across all objects:

This searches for the term “john” across all searchable fields in all objects.

SOSL Query with Specific Fields and Objects

Search for “Acme” in the name fields of accounts and contacts, and return specified fields:

This searches the name fields for “Acme” and returns the Name and Industry fields for accounts, and the FirstName and LastName fields for contacts.

SOSL Query with Wildcards

Search for records that contain the text “john” with any characters before or after it:

Use Cases

• Global Search: To implement a global search feature in Salesforce applications, allowing users to search for a term across multiple objects.
• Data Cleanup: To identify and clean up data that matches certain criteria across different objects.
• Complex Reports: To build reports that require data from multiple sources.

Limitations

• Maximum Length: The maximum length of a SOSL query is 20,000 characters.
• Searchable Fields: Not all fields are searchable using SOSL; typically, only text-based fields.
• Limited Syntax: Unlike SOQL, SOSL doesn’t support complex query constructs like joins or aggregation.

Conclusion

SOSL is a powerful tool in the Salesforce querying arsenal, especially useful for implementing search functionality that spans multiple objects. By understanding its syntax and use cases, developers can leverage SOSL to create robust and efficient search capabilities in their Salesforce applications.