What Is an sObject?

Account acc = new Account();
Contact con = new Contact();
Course_Enrollment__c enrollment = new Course_Enrollment__c();

sObject genericRecord1 = acc;         // valid — Account IS an sObject
sObject genericRecord2 = con;         // valid — Contact IS an sObject
sObject genericRecord3 = enrollment;  // valid — even custom objects ARE sObjects

1. Account acc = new Account(); — a standard object.
2. Contact con = new Contact(); — another standard object.
3. Course_Enrollment__c enrollment = new Course_Enrollment__c(); — a custom object.
4. (blank line)
5. sObject genericRecord1 = acc; — this is Module 11's polymorphism ("is-a" relationships) applied at the platform level — valid because Account IS an sObject.
6. sObject genericRecord2 = con; — valid — Contact IS an sObject too.
7. sObject genericRecord3 = enrollment; — valid — even custom objects ARE sObjects. Every single Salesforce object, standard or custom, is fundamentally an sObject.

public void logRecordId(sObject record) {
    System.debug('Record Id: ' + record.Id);
}

logRecordId(new Account(Name = 'Acme Logistics'));
logRecordId(new Contact(LastName = 'Dlamini'));

1. public void logRecordId(sObject record) { — accepts any kind of record — Account, Contact, or any custom object — without needing a separate overloaded version for each type.
2. System.debug('Record Id: ' + record.Id); — because Id exists on every sObject.
3. } — closes the method.
4. (blank line)
5. logRecordId(new Account(Name = 'Acme Logistics')); — passes an Account.
6. logRecordId(new Contact(LastName = 'Dlamini')); — passes a Contact — the same method handles both. This is exactly Module 11's polymorphism, letting one method work uniformly across many concrete record types.

sObject record = new Account(Name = 'Acme Logistics');
// record.Industry;  // compile error — sObject alone doesn't know about Industry
Account acc = (Account) record;
System.debug(acc.Industry); // fine, now typed specifically

1. sObject record = new Account(Name = 'Acme Logistics'); — a generic sObject variable.
2. // record.Industry; — commented out because this line would not compile — an sObject variable only exposes what's common to every record (like Id), not Account-specific fields.
3. Account acc = (Account) record; — casting back to the specific type first.
4. System.debug(acc.Industry); — now typed specifically, so Industry is accessible. This mirrors the trade-off from Module 11's polymorphism lesson: generality in exchange for giving up type-specific access until you cast back down.