Key Differences Between SOQL and SOSL

 

Key Differences Between SOQL and SOSL

Feature	SOQL (Salesforce Object Query Language)	SOSL (Salesforce Object Search Language)
Purpose	Retrieves records from a single object or related objects.	Searches for text across multiple objects and fields.
Use Case	Use when you know the object and fields you want to query.	Use when you don't know where the data is (full-text search).
Scope	Works on one object at a time (or related objects via relationships).	Searches multiple objects at once.
Search Type	Structured query-based search.	Full-text keyword-based search.
Works With	Standard/Custom objects, Fields (SELECT queries).	Indexed text fields, Name fields, Email fields.
Syntax Example	SELECT Name, Email FROM Contact WHERE LastName = 'Smith'	FIND 'Smith' IN ALL FIELDS RETURNING Contact(Name, Email)
Wildcards	Supports LIKE '%text%' for partial matches.	Supports * and ? wildcards.
Performance	Faster when querying specific objects and fields.	Can be faster for searching across multiple objects.
Use in Apex	Database.query('SELECT Name FROM Account')	Search.query('FIND {John} IN Name Fields RETURNING Account(Name)')