sf-soql-sosl-optimization

Measure the filter's row count against the selectivity thresholds: under 30% of the first million rows for standard indexes, under 10% for custom indexes. Then rewrite the WHERE clause to use an indexed field, remove negative operators like !=, and confirm with the REST explain endpoint that relativeCost drops below 1.0.

Use SOSL when you do not know which object or field holds the value and need an efficient cross-object text search, since SOSL tokenizes words and runs against search indexes. Use SOQL when you know the object and field, or need counts, sorting, relationship traversal, or number and date filters.

This error occurs when OFFSET exceeds the 2,000-row maximum. Replace OFFSET-based paging with keyset pagination: filter on an indexed monotonically increasing field such as Id greater than the last seen value, ordered ascending with a LIMIT.

Use Database.queryWithBinds with a bind map and AccessLevel.USER_MODE so values are never concatenated. For fragments that cannot be bound, such as field names or sort direction, validate against an allowlist from Schema.getGlobalDescribe and apply String.escapeSingleQuotes to remaining free text.

Long and rich text areas, non-deterministic formula fields, encrypted text, multi-select picklists, currency fields in multi-currency orgs, binary fields, and formulas calling TEXT() on a picklist cannot be custom indexed. External ID and Unique custom fields are indexed automatically.

Apex retrieves at most 50,000 rows per transaction across all SOQL queries, with 100 queries synchronous and 200 asynchronous. For larger reads use Database.getQueryLocator in Batch Apex or Apex cursors, which reach 50 million rows, or Bulk API 2.0 query jobs.