4/24/25, 3:08 PM Using Constructors | Apex Developer Guide | Salesforce Developers
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Using Constructors
Apex Developer Guide / Writing Apex / Classes, Objects, and Interfaces / Classes / Using Constructors
Using Constructors
A constructor is code that is invoked when an object is created from the class blueprint. You do not
need to write a constructor for every class. If a class doesn't have a user-defined constructor, a
default, no-argument constructor with the same visibility as the containing class is generated.
The syntax for a constructor is similar to a method, but it differs from a method definition in that it
never has an explicit return type and it is not inherited by the object created from it.
After you write the constructor for a class, you must use the new keyword in order to instantiate an
object from that class, using that constructor. For example, using the following class:
public class TestObject {
// The no argument constructor
public TestObject() {
// more code here
}
}
A new object of this type can be instantiated with this code.
TestObject myTest = new TestObject();
If you write a constructor that takes arguments, you can then use that constructor to create an
object using those arguments.
If you create a constructor that takes arguments, and you still want to use a no-argument
constructor, you must create your own no-argument constructor in your code. After you create a
constructor for a class, you no longer have access to the default, no-argument public constructor.
In Apex, a constructor can be overloaded, that is, there can be more than one constructor for a
class, each having different parameters. This example illustrates a class with two constructors: one
with no arguments and one that takes a simple Integer argument. It also illustrates how one
constructor calls another constructor using the this(...) syntax, also know as constructor
chaining.
public class TestObject2 {
private static final Integer DEFAULT_SIZE = 10;
Integer size;
//Constructor with no arguments
public TestObject2() {
this(DEFAULT_SIZE); // Using this(...) calls the one argument constructor
}
// Constructor with one argument
public TestObject2(Integer ObjectSize) {
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4/24/25, 3:08 PM Using Constructors | Apex Developer Guide | Salesforce Developers
size = ObjectSize;
}
}
New objects of this type can be instantiated with this code.
TestObject2 myObject1 = new TestObject2(42);
TestObject2 myObject2 = new TestObject2();
Every constructor that you create for a class must have a different argument list. In this example, all
of the constructors are possible.
public class Leads {
// First a no-argument constructor
public Leads () {}
// A constructor with one argument
public Leads (Boolean call) {}
// A constructor with two arguments
public Leads (String email, Boolean call) {}
// Though this constructor has the same arguments as the
// one above, they are in a different order, so this is legal
public Leads (Boolean call, String email) {}
}
When you define a new class, you are defining a new data type. You can use class name in any
place you can use other data type names, such as String, Boolean, or Account. If you define a
variable whose type is a class, any object you assign to it must be an instance of that class or
subclass.
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