Handling Custom Picklists

Values for custom Pick-list fields in Salesforce can be set as strings. The following example is for a built-in field, but the same approach will work for custom fields.

For the Account Rating picklist field the value can be set as follows:

/// <summary>
/// Manually created enum to represent known picklist values
/// </summary>

public enum AccountRatings
{
	Cold,
    Warm,
    Hot
}

[TestMethod]
public void UpdatePicklistField()
{
	SalesforceSession salesforceSession = SessionTest.GetActiveSession();
	AccountService accountService = new AccountService(salesforceSession);
                         
	// Retrieve an existing Account. Just get the required fields.
	Id existingAccountId = (Id)"00190000002G9cF";
      
	Account account = accountService.GetByEntityId(existingAccountId, nmew SObjectField[] { Account.Fields.Id, Account.Fields.Rating});
	string existingRating = account.InternalFields["Rating"];
    // Example using internal fields to set a picklist value. 
	// Would equally work for custom picklist fields.
	// account.InternalFields["Rating"] = "Hot";
	account.InternalFields["Rating"] = AccountRatings.Cold.ToString();
	SaveResult updateResult = accountService.UpdateEntity(account);

    Assert.IsTrue(updateResult.success);
  
	// Restore previous value using the generated property.
    account.Rating = existingRating;
    accountService.UpdateEntity(account);
}