Guide me through creating a trigger for updating a lookup field

[Ben D]

Hi there,

I'm new to SF and have never used Apex, but it looks if this is where I have to end up. I'm trying to create my organization's implementation of SF and have reached a dead end. I would prefer to have a simple fix without spending many days learning Apex, so I would really super appreciate it if someone could share what this trigger's code should look like.

I am trying to automatically populate a lookup field on a custom object, InteractionParticipant__c. When a user enters a contact into the contact lookup field (Contact__c) on this object, I would like the account lookup field (Account__c) to be updated with the contact's associated account. It seems like I can't do this through workflow rules. Happy to take suggestions as to other ways to do this as well.

Thanks so much!

[Starz26 · Accepted solution]

very basic first step

trigger populateAccount on OBJECTNAME (before insert, before update){

Map<ID,ID> conToAccount = New Map<ID,ID>();

Set<ID> conIDs = New Set<ID>();

for(OBJECTNAME o : trigger.new){

conIDs.add(o.Contact__c);

}

//Remove null just in case

conIDs.remove(null);

for(Contact c : [Select AccountID From Contact Where ID IN :conIDs])

conToAccount.put(c.id,c.AccountID);

for(OBJECTNAME o : trigger.new){

   if(conToAccount.containsKey(o.Contact__c))

        o.Account__c = conToAccount.get(o.Contact__c);

}

}

[sivaext]

Hi

try this

trigger triggername on InteractionParticipant__c(before insert) {

  set<id> contactid = new set<id>();

  public contact con;

  for(InteractionParticipant__c IP:trigger.new) {

         contactid.add(IP.contact__c);

}

con= [select id,accountId from contact where id=:contactid[0]]; 

 for(InteractionParticipant__c IP:trigger.new){

        IP.Account Id=con.accountid;

}

}

[Ben D]

Thanks, though when I try to put this in, I get the error: Error: Compile Error: Invalid type: IP.Account at line 21 column 9. That line is where it says: IP.Account Id=con.accountid;

[Ben D]

Ooh I think the first reply worked (last post referred to the second which I tried first)! I may have followup questions while I play around with it, but thanks so much!

[sivaext]

Hi

try this 

 IP.Account__c = con.accountId