What is Apex?

What is Apex?

For Salesforce developers, it's almost their second language; they know this type of programming language inside out. But what exactly is Apex and when do you use Apex?

Salesforce's Apex explained

Salesforce defines Apex as:

"Apex is a highly typed, object-oriented programming language that allows developers to execute flow and transaction control statements on Salesforce servers in conjunction with calls to the API."

A strongly typed, object-oriented programming language means that it has strict type rules, where developers define the data type of a data structure.

Flow and transaction control statements are used to determine which statement to execute (flow) and to manage transactions in the database on Salesforce servers.

An API is when software components communicate with each other. An API call is when you invoke a server using APIs. For example, when you log in, you make an API call.

Simply put, it is a type of programming language designed specifically for Salesforce functionality. It was created to work with and for Salesforce's servers and databases.

When do you need it?

According to Salesforce, Salesforce is a platform that hardly needs any code and that you can manage just fine with point-and-click. So, why is there still a need for Salesforce developers and a programming language like Apex?

Sometimes a company needs more complex business functionality or processes than are available in the standard Salesforce environment. This is when you need a Salesforce developer. To create these additional functionalities, developers use Apex.

For most developers, Apex is fairly easy to learn; it is very similar to Java, and Salesforce offers free Trailhead courses to prepare for their developer certification. Developers use Salesforce's Lightning Platform to write their code and create new features and processes.

Colin Hammer

Colin Hamer is a Software Engineer at CaseNine. He is responsible for various Salesforce projects at clients.