Note the code pasted in normal text format in blue for those who see garbled code.

Hi all,

The key problem here is how to take a multi-select picklist on two separate instances of an object related to the account and populate a multi-select picklist on the account with a merged set of their values. Sounds simple, but I'm stumped.

Here are the details:

An account is being assessed by two independent users via a related custom object called Assessment. In their assessments they give feedback via a multi-select picklist called Decline/Refer Feedback and then make a recommendation by choosing a value in a picklist called Recommendation.

When they save an assessment record and Recommendation has switched from null to not null, an after update trigger on the assessment calls a decision method with a list of the affected accounts. This method creates nested maps of account to assessment to recommendation and account to assessment to decline/refer feedback:

        //Create nested map of account ID to map of IEF assessment IDs to recommendations
        Map<ID,Map<ID,String>> recMap = new Map<ID,Map<ID,String>> ();
        Map<ID,String> recNestMap = new Map<ID,String> ();
       
        //Create nested map of account ID to map of IEF assessment IDs to decline/refer feedback
        Map<ID,Map<ID,String>> feedMap = new Map<ID,Map<ID,String>> ();
        Map<ID,String> feedNestMap = new Map<ID,String> ();

After populating these maps, I iterate through the accounts and count the instances of a certain recommendation occurring, which allows me to decide on the appropriate action. This is relatively easy as we're dealing with a picklist with four values: Decline, Refer to Level 1, Refer to Level 2 and Approve:

//Iterate through accounts
        for(Account a:accs){
                      
            //Declare counting variables
            Integer approvecount=0;
            Integer declinecount=0;
            Integer refertwocount=0;
            Integer earlycount=0;
            Integer grantcount=0;

            //Count approvals, declinations and referrals for each account
            for(ID rec :recMap.get(a.Id).keySet()){
                if(recMap.get(a.Id).get(rec) == 'Approve'){
                    approvecount++;
                }
                if(recMap.get(a.Id).get(rec) == 'Decline'){
                    declinecount++;
                }
                if(recMap.get(a.Id).get(rec) == 'Refer to Level 2'){
                    refertwocount++;
                }
            }               

            //Decide on appropriate action
            if(approvecount>=2){
                a.SAQ_Sub_stage__c='SAQ to be sent';
                a.Initial_Enquiry_Sub_stage__c='Assessment complete (No conflict)';
                a.Advantage_Stage__c='SAQ';             
            }
            else if(approvecount==1){  
                a.SAQ_Sub_stage__c='SAQ to be sent';
                a.Initial_Enquiry_Sub_stage__c='Assessment complete (Conflict)';
                a.Advantage_Stage__c='SAQ';             
            }
            else if(declinecount>=2){  
                a.Initial_Enquiry_Sub_stage__c='Assessment complete (No conflict)';             
                a.Advantage_Status__c='To be declined';
            }
            else if(refertwocount>=2){  
                a.Initial_Enquiry_Sub_stage__c='Assessment complete (No conflict)';             
                a.Advantage_Status__c='To be referred to Level 2';
            }
            else if(refertwocount==1){  
                a.Initial_Enquiry_Sub_stage__c='Assessment complete (Conflict)';             
                a.Advantage_Status__c='To be referred to Level 2';
            }
            else if(declinecount==1){ 
                a.Initial_Enquiry_Sub_stage__c='Assessment complete (Conflict)';            
                a.Advantage_Status__c='To be referred to Level 1';
            }
            else{          
                a.Initial_Enquiry_Sub_stage__c='Assessment complete (No conflict)';             
                a.Advantage_Status__c='To be referred to Level 1';
            }

 The problem comes with the multi-picklists, as combinations increase exponentially with increase in the number of values. I started with two feedback values: Too early and Requests grant. With only two values it's quite easy to count the occurrence of each value across the assessment objects:

//Count feedback given
            for(ID feed :feedMap.get(a.Id).keySet()){
                if(feedMap.get(a.Id).get(feed) == 'Too Early'){
                    earlycount++;
                }
                if(feedMap.get(a.Id).get(feed) == 'Requests Grant'){               
                    grantcount++;
                }
                if(feedMap.get(a.Id).get(feed) == 'Too Early;Requests Grant'
                  || feedMap.get(a.Id).get(feed) == 'Requests Grant;Too Early'){                               
                    earlycount++;
                    grantcount++;
                }
            }
           
            //Decide on appropriate action based on feedback counts
            if(earlycount>0 && grantcount>0){
                a.Assessment_Feedback__c='It is too early stage;You require grant finance';
            }
            else if(earlycount>0){
                a.Assessment_Feedback__c='It is too early stage';
            }
            else if(grantcount>0){
                a.Assessment_Feedback__c='You require grant finance';
            }
            else{
                a.Assessment_Feedback__c=null;
            }
        }

 The problem comes when the users want to have six values in the feedback multi-select picklist. Counting occurrences of a value now becomes a bit of a nightmare. I've tried using the contains String method, but when I try it with the case of only two multi-select options, it fails my test class.

  //Count feedback given
            for(ID feed :feedMap.get(a.Id).keySet()){               
                if(feedMap.get(a.Id).get(feed).contains('Too Early')){
                    earlycount++;
                }
                if(feedMap.get(a.Id).get(feed).contains('Requests Grant')){               
                    grantcount++;
                }               
            }
           
            //Decide on appropriate action based on feedback counts
            if(earlycount>0 && grantcount>0){
                a.Assessment_Feedback__c='It is too early stage;You require grant finance';
            }
            else if(earlycount>0){
                a.Assessment_Feedback__c='It is too early stage';
            }
            else if(grantcount>0){
                a.Assessment_Feedback__c='You require grant finance';
            }
            else{
                a.Assessment_Feedback__c=null;
            }

 The error is "Attempt to de-reference a null object" and is pinned to this line at "get(feed)":

if(feedMap.get(a.Id).get(feed).contains('Too Early'))

 if(feedMap.get(a.Id).get(feed) == 'Too Early')

Looking in the string method documentation, it seems that 'contains' is an instance method, which might be what is screwing things up.

Regardless, there has to be a better way of querying multi-select picklists than looking for equivalency for 63 different combinations (6_C_6 + 6_C_5 + 6_C_4 + 6_C_3 + 6_C_2 + 6_C_1 = 63 [link]). The second problem is then how do I populate the multi-select picklist on the Account, based upon the occurrence of different multi-select values. At the moment, I'm writing a string to the account field, which is fine for two values, as there are only three combinations. With six, however, we're dealing with 63 different strings again. I can't find any documentation on selecting a multi-select value without overwriting what is in the field already, which is what I would do in an ideal world.

Any advice on how to deal with these two problems would be very gratefully received.

Thanks in advance,

Paddington