What Are Salesforce IDs Composed Of?

Question:

Salesforce IDs are widely used to uniquely identify records, but what exactly are they composed of? I’ve come across references suggesting that different segments of the ID represent specific meanings—for example, the first few characters indicating the type of sObject. Could you explain this in detail? Additionally, how can one convert between 15-character and 18-character IDs, and are there nuances when dealing with case sensitivity in these conversions?

Answer:

Salesforce IDs come in two formats: a 15-character case-sensitive ID and an 18-character case-insensitive ID. The 15-character ID is used in the Salesforce user interface, while the 18-character ID is preferred for external integrations, as it includes a checksum to ensure case-insensitivity.

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The first three characters of a Salesforce ID represent the object type, which allows you to determine the sObject type (e.g., Account, Contact, or Opportunity). These prefixes are consistent across all Salesforce organizations for standard objects but may differ for custom objects.

Converting Between 15-Character and 18-Character IDs

When converting from an 18-character ID to a 15-character ID, some may simply truncate the last three characters. However, this approach is not entirely reliable because it doesn’t account for the checksum logic embedded in the 18-character ID. Instead, the proper conversion involves a more structured method.

Case Sensitivity in IDs

The 18-character ID includes a checksum designed to make the ID case-insensitive when used in external systems. However, sorting 18-character IDs can still result in case-insensitive mismatches due to how the checksum characters are calculated. For example, the following IDs would sort differently in case-sensitive and case-insensitive scenarios:

15-character IDs:

• AAAAbAAAAbAAAAb
• aaAABaaAABaaAAB
• aaaAbaaaAbaaaAb
• aaaabaaaabaaaab

18-character equivalents:

• AAAAbAAAAbAAAAbPPP
• aaAABaaAABaaAAB222
• aaaAbaaaAbaaaAbIII
• aaaabaaaabaaaabAAA

Case-sensitive sorting for 15-character IDs maintains alphabetical order, while 18-character IDs exhibit different order due to checksum encoding.

In conclusion, Salesforce IDs are thoughtfully constructed to represent object types and ensure compatibility across systems. For conversions and integrations, proper handling of the checksum is essential to avoid issues with case sensitivity or data integrity.

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