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sgkmillssgkmills 

Apex Code not ablet to reference the Account Name field

I have written some apex code to basically do an update of account records where all the children of a master account will be updated with certain information.  We have a custom field called "Parent_Account_Name" and this field should be updated with the master account's new name. 

I create an array of accounts and try to access the Name field, but I get a null value.  The problem is I can reference the name field by displaying accts[0].Name, (where accts is my array of accounts returned from a SOQL query) but not reference it by doing the 'for (Account a1 : accts)' and then displaying a1.Name.  a1.Name shows as Null.

Below is the code for the trigger:

Code:
if (Trigger.isAfter) {
      /* Once the insert/update trigger is completed, the cascading phase is as follows:
    1.  Get the Acct Id of the record that was just inserted/updated
    2.  Do a search to see which records have their ParentId the same as the Acct Id found in 1.
    3.  Update the new Parent Name for all those records in 2.
    */
        for (Account a : Trigger.new) {
         System.Debug('isAfter-a: ' + a);
         Account[] accts = [select id, ParentId, Name from Account where ParentId = :a.Id];
         System.Debug('SKM-Acct.Size: ' + accts.size());
         if (accts.size() > 0) {
             System.Debug('accts[0]: ' + accts[0].Name);
             for (Account a1 : accts) {
                a1.Name = a.Parent_Account_Name__c;
                System.Debug('a1= ' + a1 + ', acct.Name= ' + a1.Name + ', a.Parent_Account.Name= ' + a.Parent_Account_Name__c);
            }
         }
        }

 
I have viewed the code in debug mode and see some wierd behavior.

Partial print of the debug code is below:
Code:
20080219162042.523:Trigger.ParentNameUpdateTrigger: line 6, column 3: Starting ParentNameUpdate
20080219162042.523:Trigger.ParentNameUpdateTrigger: line 51, column 10: isAfter-a: Account:{SystemModstamp=Tue Feb 19 16:20:42 GMT 2008, Type=Master Customer, Parent_ID_Confirm__c=1, RecordTypeId=0125000000097vkAAA, OwnerId=00550000000s4qAAAQ, IsExcludedFromRealign=false, IsLocked=false, LastModifiedById=00550000000s4qAAAQ, MayEdit=false, IsDeleted=false, Master_Customer_Level__c=SKM-Tes1a, CreatedDate=Tue Feb 19 16:20:38 GMT 2008, LastModifiedDate=Tue Feb 19 16:20:42 GMT 2008, Account_ID_Display__c=001S0000002f8AY, Name=SKM-Tes1a, Id=001S0000002f8AYIAY, CreatedById=00550000000s4qAAAQ}
20080219162042.523:Trigger.ParentNameUpdateTrigger: line 53, column 10: SKM-Acct.Size: 2
20080219162042.523:Trigger.ParentNameUpdateTrigger: line 55, column 13: accts[0]: SKM-Test2
20080219162042.523:Trigger.ParentNameUpdateTrigger: line 58, column 17: a1= Account:{ParentId=001S0000002f8AYIAY, Name=null, Id=001S0000002f8AZIAY}, acct.Name= null, a.Parent_Account.Name= null
20080219162042.523:Trigger.ParentNameUpdateTrigger: line 58, column 17: a1= Account:{ParentId=001S0000002f8AYIAY, Name=null, Id=001S0000002f8AaIAI}, acct.Name= null, a.Parent_Account.Name= null

 
The debug statement at line 53 shows 2 accounts that are children of my master account.  If I traverse the accts array that I created, I see that 'accts[0].Name' does show the correct name of 'SKM-Test-2'.  Then I use a for loop to go through the accts array, 'for (Account a1 : accts)', and try to print out the values, but the 'Name' field is now Null!  So how is it that I can reference the name field by dowing accts[0].Name, but not reference it by doing the 'For loop'?

SuperfellSuperfell
Its null because you just set it to null (the a1.Name = a.Parent_Account_Name__c; line). as your debug log shows a.Parent_Account_Name__c is null.
sgkmillssgkmills
Sometimes you just need another eye looking at it!  Thanks!

BTW, since I will be updating maybe more than one account, Is this the best approach?

//Creating a list object of accounts
List<Account> updatedaccts = new Account[]{};

then, update the accts in bulk using the list object of accounts:

             for (Account a1 : accts) {
                a1.Parent_Account_Name__c = a.Name;
                System.Debug('a1= ' + a1 + ', a1.Parent_Account_Name= ' + a1.Parent_Account_Name__c + ', a1.Name= ' + a1.Name);
                updatedaccts.add(a1);
            }
            update updatedaccts;
mtbclimbermtbclimber
This looks acceptable (from what I can see, although I don't know where 'a' is coming from):


for (Account a1 : accts) {
a1.Parent_Account_Name__c = a.Name;
System.Debug('a1= ' + a1 + ', a1.Parent_Account_Name= ' + a1.Parent_Account_Name__c + ', a1.Name= ' + a1.Name);
updatedaccts.add(a1);
}
update updatedaccts;


This, however is not:

for (Account a : Trigger.new) {
System.Debug('isAfter-a: ' + a);
Account[] accts = [select id, ParentId, Name from Account where ParentId = :a.Id];
System.Debug('SKM-Acct.Size: ' + accts.size());
if (accts.size() > 0) {
System.Debug('accts[0]: ' + accts[0].Name);
for (Account a1 : accts) {
a1.Name = a.Parent_Account_Name__c;
System.Debug('a1= ' + a1 + ', acct.Name= ' + a1.Name + ', a.Parent_Account.Name= ' + a.Parent_Account_Name__c);
}
}

It's not acceptable because you are issuing a query for each account in the request. If a user sends in more than 20 accounts in one request (API, Import wizard, etc.) your trigger will fail because of the SOQL query call limit.