Salesforce Platform Developer Practice Exam

How can a developer display data from the parent record on a Visualforce page?

1. By using SOQL on the Visualforce page to query for data from the parent record.

2. By using merge field syntax to retrieve data from the parent record.

3. By adding a second standard controller to the page for the parent record.

4. By using a roll-up formula field on the child record to include data from the parent record.

The correct answer is: By using merge field syntax to retrieve data from the parent record.

Using merge field syntax to retrieve data from the parent record is an effective approach because it allows you to access and display fields from the parent record directly within a Visualforce page. This syntax leverages the relationship between the child and parent records automatically established within Salesforce's data model. In Visualforce, you can navigate through the object hierarchy using dot notation. For example, if you have a child object that is related to a parent object, you can access fields from the parent object using the syntax `{!parentObject.fieldName}`. This makes it straightforward to display relevant parent information on the Visualforce page without writing complex queries or additional controllers. While other methods might seem viable, they come with limitations. Using SOQL directly on the Visualforce page can lead to less maintainability and performance issues, as well as potential governor limits being hit. Adding a second standard controller introduces unnecessary complexity and does not align with best practices. Using a roll-up formula field is not applicable to display data dynamically on the Visualforce page but rather serves to aggregate data at the record level. Therefore, merge field syntax stands out as the most efficient and simplest way to display parent record data on a Visualforce page.