{"id":5515,"date":"2016-06-01T18:03:39","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T18:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jitendrazaa.com\/blog\/?p=5515"},"modified":"2016-06-01T18:03:39","modified_gmt":"2016-06-01T18:03:39","slug":"batch-apex-first-error-apex-cpu-time-limit-exceeded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jitendrazaa.com\/blog\/salesforce\/batch-apex-first-error-apex-cpu-time-limit-exceeded\/","title":{"rendered":"Batch Apex – First error: Apex CPU time limit exceeded"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this post, I would share my recent experience in fixing “CPU time limit” error in Batch apex and reason. When I encountered this error, initially\u00a0thought that it would be easy to fix by following some of basic rules like :<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Remove unnecessary code and loops<\/li>\n
  2. Efficient use of collections (Set, Hashmap or List)<\/li>\n
  3. Avoid using loop within loop<\/li>\n
  4. SOQL query should be indexable<\/li>\n
  5. Avoid unnecessary re-initialization of variables<\/li>\n
  6. Use Aggregated SOQL<\/a> (as Database operations not counted in this limit, avoid arithmetic operations in Apex)<\/li>\n
  7. Check how much time Workflow rules and process builders are taking<\/li>\n
  8. Is there any manage package performing heavy operations in transaction<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This piece of code was handed over to me from previous team, so I was not fully aware about full functionality and thought to check debug logs. To my surprise, how many times I\u00a0tried to get a log, every attempt failed.\u00a0I was thinking that problem could be in execute<\/em> method however\u00a0Batch Apex was failing with no debug logs. I tried all my tricks to get debug log<\/a> with no success. \u00a0Batch Apex was using Query locator and it could fetch up to 50 millions of record<\/a> and therefore overlooked start<\/em> method.<\/p>\n

    Below pseudo code will give you some idea about Batch Apex structure and data volume.<\/p>\n

    \r\nglobal class SampleBatchApex_CPUError implements Database.Batchable<sObject> {\r\n\r\n\tString query = ' SELECT Field1, Field2, (SELECT Name, Identifier__c FROM childObject__r Where type=\\'some value\\') FROM Contact'; \r\n\t\r\n\tglobal Database.QueryLocator start(Database.BatchableContext BC) { \r\n\t\treturn Database.getQueryLocator(query);\r\n\t}\r\n\r\n\tglobal void execute(Database.BatchableContext BC, List<Contact> contacts) { \r\n\t\t\/\/Some code about 100 lines\r\n\t}\r\n\t\r\n\tglobal void finish(Database.BatchableContext BC) {\r\n\t\t\/\/Perform cleaning and start another Batch job\r\n\t}\t\r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n
    Data volume in full copy sandbox were like<\/p>\n
      \n
    • Contact – 270k+<\/li>\n
    • ChildObject__c – 270k+<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      Reason for CPU time out (in my case) – SubQuery<\/strong><\/p>\n
      I tried SOQL Query Plan and run\u00a0same query in Developer console and workbench, but it was not timing out. Still, gave one shot to idea that I had and tried to remove subquery from\u00a0start<\/em> method and queried again in execute<\/em> method. And voilla<\/em>…. it worked. So, subquery in SOQL was causing CPU time limit error and it was not even able to enter in execute method. I got lost because there were no debug logs. Instead of spending time on actual issue, I spent lot of time to figure out why debug log is not showing up.<\/p>\n
      Lessons learned <\/strong><\/p>\n
        \n
      1. If we are getting CPU time limit error (in my experience I have seen many), then avoid using sub-query, its costly and time consuming. Damn !!! I need to tell\u00a0my colleagues of previous projects to check code for subquery, where they are getting CPU\u00a0error.<\/li>\n
      2. If batch apex error says “First error – some error” , that means error is in start<\/em> method and don’t even try to hunt for execute<\/em> method debug logs.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
        Lessons learned while fixing error in Batch Apex , First error: Apex CPU time limit exceeded<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"jz_research_post":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[368],"class_list":["post-5515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-salesforce","tag-batch-apex"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6244,"url":"https:\/\/www.jitendrazaa.com\/blog\/salesforce\/a-tale-of-governor-limits-and-solutions-in-salesforce\/","url_meta":{"origin":5515,"position":0},"title":"A Tale of Governor Limits and Solutions in Salesforce","author":"Jitendra","date":"November 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Thrilling story of Salesforce Technical Architect on a quest to solve application problems and avoid governor limit errors","rel":"","context":"In "Salesforce"","block_context":{"text":"Salesforce","link":"https:\/\/www.jitendrazaa.com\/blog\/category\/salesforce\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Tale of Governor Limits and Solutions in Salesforce","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jitendrazaa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/A-Tale-of-Governor-Limits-and-Solutions-in-Salesforce.jpg?fit=900%2C417&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jitendrazaa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/A-Tale-of-Governor-Limits-and-Solutions-in-Salesforce.jpg?fit=900%2C417&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jitendrazaa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/A-Tale-of-Governor-Limits-and-Solutions-in-Salesforce.jpg?fit=900%2C417&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jitendrazaa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/A-Tale-of-Governor-Limits-and-Solutions-in-Salesforce.jpg?fit=900%2C417&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":31927,"url":"https:\/\/www.jitendrazaa.com\/blog\/salesforce\/salesforce-scale-center-complete-guide-performance\/","url_meta":{"origin":5515,"position":1},"title":"Salesforce Scale Center Complete Guide: Performance Monitoring & Optimization | March 2026","author":"Jitendra","date":"March 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Master Salesforce Scale Center for performance monitoring and optimization. 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Give Sample Code Snippet of Apex that that will show that how Parent and Child record can be inserted in Single Statement ? Ans : It can be done with help of External Id. 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