Summary

This chapter is arguably the most important chapter in the book. It describes core Apex concepts and syntax that form the basis of all subsequent chapters. Absorb this chapter, augmenting it with the information available through the developer.force.com Web site and community, and you will be well prepared to write your own Force.com applications.

Before moving on, take a few minutes to review these major areas:

Apex is the only language that runs inside the Force.com platform and is tightly integrated with the Force.com database. Apex is strongly typed and includes object-oriented features.

The Force.com database is queried using SOQL and SOSL, and its records are modified using DML. All three languages can be embedded directly inside Apex code.

Resources consumed by Apex programs are tightly controlled by the Force.com platform through governor limits. Limits vary based on the type of resource consumed. Learn the relevant governor limits as early as possible in your development process. This ensures that you write efficient code that scales up to production data volumes.