Parent to Child – Relationship Queries in SOQL
Chapter Topics
- SOQL Basics (Salesforce Object Query Language)
- How to Write SOQL in APEX
- SOQL Variable Binding in APEX
- SOQL Keywords
- SOQL Date Literals In Salesforce
- SOQL Aggregate Query
- Child to Parent Relationship
- Parent to Child – Relationship Queries in SOQL
- SOQL Multi level Relationships
- SOQL Return Type
- Salesforce Dynamic SOQL
- SOQL ’for’ Loops
Understanding relationships between different objects is important for managing Salesforce data effectively. One of the most commonly used query patterns in Salesforce is the Parent-to-Child relationship query, which enables you to organize and structure data in a way that reflects real-world scenarios. This query pattern helps in building robust data models that support complex business processes.
A parent-to-child relationship in SOQL retrieves parent records with their associated child records within a single query. In this guide, we will look at how you can use SOQL inner query in Salesforce to fetch data from standard as well as custom objects.
What is a Parent-to-Child Relationship Query?
A Parent-to-Child relationship in Salesforce query allows you to retrieve data from related objects where a parent object is related to multiple child records through lookup or master-detail relationships. It means that for each record in the parent object, there can be multiple related records in the child object.
Parent-to-child queries retrieve parent records along with their related child records using a single subquery in SOQL Salesforce, making it convenient to access related records. A parent-to-child query can return up to 50,000 parent records, and a maximum of 20 parent-to-child relationship subqueries can be in a Single SOQL query in Salesforce.
Example:
In the case of an Account object (parent) and a Contact object (child), the Account can have multiple associated Contacts. Using a Parent-to-Child relationship in SOQL, you can retrieve an Account along with its related Contacts (subject to SOQL limits) in a single query.
For Standard Objects
Salesforce provides predefined parent to child SOQL standard objects. Such as:
- Account (Parent) → Contact (Child)
- Opportunity (Parent) → Opportunity Product (Child)
- Case (Parent) → Case Comment (Child)
Example SOQL relationship queries in Salesforce:
List AccountData = [SELECT Id, Name, Industry, AnnualRevenue, NumberOfEmployees, (SELECT FirstName, LastName FROM Contacts) FROM Account];
List OpportunityData = [SELECT Id, Name, StageName, Amount, CloseDate, (SELECT Id, Quantity, UnitPrice FROM OpportunityLineItems) FROM Opportunity];
List CaseData = [SELECT Id, ParentId, Subject, Description, Priority, (SELECT Id, IsPublished, CommentBody FROM CaseComments) FROM Case];
Here, CaseComments is the child relationship name used in the subquery.
Note: The field name “IsPublished” is relevant in the portal/community contexts.
For Custom Objects
For custom objects, you must use the child relationship name, ending with __r, but it is defined in the object schema and may differ from the object name.
Example of parent to child SOQL custom object:
- Bank (parent) → Branch (child)
- Project (Parent) → Task (Child)
- Department (Parent) → Employee (Child)
SELECT Bank_Name__c,
(SELECT Branch_Id__c, Name, State__c FROM Branches__r)
FROM Bank__c
This custom query will fetch:
- The Bank_Name__c field from the Bank__c object (parent)
- A subquery that selects Branch_Id__c, Name, and State__c fields from the Branches__r object (child) that are related to each Bank__c record
- The __r suffix is used for the child relationship name for custom objects.
*Branches__r( is a child relationship name, not object API name)
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