SEL_Hierarchy

Class · Group: Selectors

global inherited sharing class SEL_Hierarchy

Data Access Layer for managing self-referencing hierarchical relationships. Provides methods to traverse hierarchies, find ultimate parents (root ancestors), and propagate updates to descendants.

Works with any SObject that has a self-referencing lookup field (e.g., Account.ParentId).

Performance Optimizations:

- Queries up to 5 parent levels per SOQL (Salesforce maximum)

- Bulkified operations minimize query count

- Caches field metadata within Selector instance

- Uses efficient Map-based lookups over iterations

Since: 1.0

Example:

// Simple usage - find ultimate parent
Id ultimateParent = SEL_Hierarchy.forField(Account.ParentId)
    .findUltimateParent(childAccountId);
// Reusable selector for multiple operations
SEL_Hierarchy.Selector accountHierarchy = SEL_Hierarchy.forField(Account.ParentId);
Id root = accountHierarchy.findUltimateParent(accountId);
Set<Id> children = accountHierarchy.findAllDescendants(root);
// Bulk operation
Map<Id, Id> ultimateParents = accountHierarchy.findUltimateParents(accountIds);
// Propagate ultimate parent to descendants (for trigger context)
List<SObject> updates = accountHierarchy.propagateToDescendants
(
    changedAccountIds,
    Account.UltimateParent__c
);
update updates;

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Methods

Method	Description
global static SEL_Hierarchy.Selector forField(SObjectField parentField)	Creates a Selector for hierarchy operations using the specified parent field.

Inner Classes

Class	Description
Selector	Selector class that provides hierarchy operations for a specific SObject type.

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Method Details

forField

global static SEL_Hierarchy.Selector forField(SObjectField parentField)

Creates a Selector for hierarchy operations using the specified parent field. The SObjectType is automatically inferred from the field.

Parameters:

• parentField (SObjectField) - The self-referencing lookup field (e.g., Account.ParentId).

Returns: SEL_Hierarchy.Selector - A configured Selector ready for hierarchy operations.

Since: 1.0

Example:

// Simple one-liner
Id ultimateParent = SEL_Hierarchy.forField(Account.ParentId).findUltimateParent(accountId);
// Reusable selector
SEL_Hierarchy.Selector accountHierarchy = SEL_Hierarchy.forField(Account.ParentId);
Id root = accountHierarchy.findUltimateParent(childId);
Set<Id> descendants = accountHierarchy.findAllDescendants(root);