Record ID

Each record in the Salesforce.com system has a unique ID field assigned to it which is known as Record ID. It is system generated and cannot be edited or deleted. It is generated every time a new record is inserted into the application.

Entering a known Record ID in Salesforce will direct you straight to the details page of that record. The first 3 characters of an ID indicate the object type.

For example: Accounts – 001, Contacts – 003, Leads – 00Q, etc.

These prefixes can never be changed for objects.

Custom objects are assigned 3-char prefixes based on internal SFDC rules that we cannot predict.

There are two versions of Record IDs:

1. 15 digit case-sensitive version: It is referenced in the user interface.
2. 18 digit case-insensitive version: It is referenced through the API. The last 3 digits of it are the checksum of the capitalization of the first 15 characters.

A 15-digit id can be converted into an 18-digit id using CASESAFEID() function and to convert an 18-digit id into 15-digit simply remove the last 3 digits from it.

Note:

Salesforce Record IDs are identical only in the Full Copy Sandbox and Production environments.

Let us now move on to the next chapter: Data Security