There are times when a person needs to find something on a drop-down list, only to find himself scrolling down on several values because every available option has been included in the list. Not only is this time-consuming, it’s also quite stressful on his part. Hence, the concept of field dependency comes into play to solve this rather bothersome situation.
What is Field Dependency?
Field dependency is a Salesforce feature, which allows users to change the contents of a certain drop-down list by filtering down the values from another field. For instance, if the list is too long, a field dependency can limit the values displayed based on related values for another field. An example is that instead of looking at a long list of values for Food Items, a user can limit them to another field, such as Breakfast.
Types of Field Dependency
List fields can either be Controlling or Dependent fields. The controlling field regulates the values in one or several related dependent fields. The dependent field, on the other hand, displays items based on the selected values from its controlling field. To illustrate this in the above given example, Breakfast is the controlling field, while the Food items list becomes the dependent field.
Creating a Field Dependency
From the Setup menu, select the object that needs to have a field dependency created. Click on the field dependency button. A screen will pull up, prompting the user to select which field will be dependent and which one will be controlling. Just scroll down to choose the fields, then click the Continue button.
Salesforce will then ask the user to define the filter rules that control the dependent field’s values. Follow the on-screen instructions that will appear to toggle each cell value’s visibility. Test the results first by clicking the Preview button, then click save button once satisfied with the results.