How to Improve Schema Access Performance in Apex?

Question

When working with Apex code that needs to interrogate the schema for dynamic behavior, such as defining fields that should be loaded or saved for specific objects (e.g., “Account” or “MyCustomObject__c”), it can be slow and resource-intensive, especially when using calls like Schema.getGlobalDescribe() or Schema.describeSObjects(types). These calls often consume a lot of CPU time, leading to performance bottlenecks. So, what are the best ways to improve the performance of schema access in Salesforce? If you’re wondering how to improve Schema access performance in Apex, read on to find out.

Answer:

The primary issue lies in the way Salesforce handles schema data access. There are two different types of schema access in Salesforce: Dynamic and Static.

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Dynamic Schema Access

Dynamic Schema Access is what Salesforce uses when calling methods like Schema.getGlobalDescribe() and Schema.describeSObjects. These methods dynamically load the schema for all objects passed, which can be very slow when dealing with large or numerous objects. This approach also uses a session cache for these schema details, adding to the processing time.

Static Schema Access

Static Schema Access, on the other hand, is much faster and should be preferred wherever possible. It is used when directly referencing an SObject type via Schema.SObjectType.Account or Schema.SObjectType.MyCustomObject__c. Static schema access is significantly faster because it leverages behind-the-scenes session caching and doesn’t require reloading schema details repeatedly.

Best Approach to Improve Performance

To improve performance, it’s crucial to minimize the use of dynamic schema calls and instead rely on static access when the object type is already known. For example, if you have an SObject API name like “Account” or “MyCustomObject__c”, you can use the following code to access schema details statically:

SObject obj = (SObject) Type.forName(theApiNameString).newInstance();
DescribeSObjectResult describe = obj.getSObjectType().getDescribe();

This method uses the Type.forName function to dynamically instantiate an object of the given API name, and then uses getDescribe() to obtain the schema details. The beauty of this approach is that Salesforce optimizes the schema access in the same session, meaning repeated accesses to the same schema do not incur additional overhead.

Avoid Redundant Schema Loading

It’s important to note that if you mix static and dynamic schema access, Salesforce will load the schema details twice, once for the static and once for the dynamic access, which leads to redundant processing and should be avoided.

Using SObjectDescribeOptions.DEFERRED for Better Performance

As of the 2023 update, you can further improve performance by using SObjectDescribeOptions.DEFERRED with Schema.describeSObjects. This option allows for better performance when retrieving schema details for specific objects:

String typeName = 'Account';
List<Schema.DescribeSObjectResult> describes = Schema.describeSObjects(new String[] { typeName }, SObjectDescribeOptions.DEFERRED);
DescribeSObjectResult describe = describes[0];

This approach improves performance even compared to using Type.forName. By ensuring that the correct approach (static or deferred) is used, you can drastically reduce the overheads associated with schema access in Salesforce.

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