Salesforce's APEX language specification

Question

I'd like to find out exact APEX language specification (with all that grammars, etc.) but I've spent half a day and ended with almost nothing.

I know that APEX is Java-based language, but compiling it's spec on my own from Java spec and exclusively APEX things will be a pain.

Is there any place where I can get APEX language specification?

For those not familiar with them - I'm looking for a such document http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se7/html/index.html for it.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

My understanding is that Salesforce haven't currently published such a document. Instead they want you to use the Tooling API to get the tokens etc...

See Grammar for creating an Apex parser

Depending on your scenario you might find the Apex Language Server a useful tool. It does the Apex parsing etc... behind the scenes for the current VSCode tooling.

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Incidentally, the Salesforce StackExchange site linked above is a great place to ask Salesforce specific questions.

Answer 2

Actually, Salesforce does publish a detailed Apex developer guide.

The current 2017 document can be found here :

https://resources.docs.salesforce.com/208/latest/en-us/sfdc/pdf/salesforce_apex_language_reference.pdf

This document and it's location could be updated frequently, so you can also Google 'Apex Developer Guide' to get here :

https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.apexcode.meta/apexcode/apex_dev_guide.htm

Once here, click the PDF button to generate/view the latest PDF, or use the available content options to view online.