Let Users Select States, Countries, and Territories from Picklists
State and country/territory picklists let users select states, countries and territories from predefined, standardized lists, instead of entering state and country/territory data into text fields. State and country/territory picklists offer faster and easier data entry. They help to ensure cleaner data that can be harnessed for other uses—in reports and dashboards, for example. They protect data integrity by preventing typos, alternate spellings, and junk data—even in records updated through the API.
Required Editions
| Available in: both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience |
| Available in: All Editions except Database.com |
The states, countries, and territories in the picklists are based on ISO-3166 standard values, making them compatible with other applications.
State and country/territory picklists are available in the shipping, billing, mailing, and “other” address fields in the account, campaign members, contact, contract, lead, order, person accounts, quotes, and service contracts standard objects. The picklists are also available for managing users and companies in Setup. To use the picklists, first choose the country or territory, and then choose from the options that automatically populate the state or province picklist.
You can use the state and country/territory picklists in most places that state and country/territory fields are available in Salesforce, including:
- Record edit and detail pages
- List views, reports, and dashboards
- Filters, functions, rules, and assignments
State and country/territory picklists can also be searched, and they’re supported in Translation Workbench.
State and Country/Territory Picklist Limitations
State and country/territory picklists include 235 countries and territories by default. They also include the states and provinces of the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Ireland, Italy, and Mexico. State and country/territory picklists that contain more than 1,000 states or countries/territories can cause degraded performance. State and country/territory picklists don’t work with:
- Salesforce to Salesforce
- Connect Offline
- Change sets
Picklist labels, not code values, are displayed in reports on state and country/territory fields. To display code value abbreviations wherever your users see state, country, and territory names, manually change your State Name or Country/Territory Name labels to your code values. (For editing instructions, see Configure State and Country/Territory Picklists.) You can access your records’ state and country/territory code values by using the StateCode and CountryCode fields in Translation Workbench or the Data Loader.
Implementing State and Country/Territory Picklists
Here’s how to transition from text-based state and country/territory fields to state and country/territory picklists.
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Configure the state and
country/territory values you want to use in Salesforce.
We recommend this step because it allows you to customize state, country, and territory values. It ensures that state and country/territory data continues to work with the third-party systems you have integrated with Salesforce.
-
Scan your Salesforce data
and customizations.
Convert data and update customizations, such as list views, reports, and workflow rules, so that they continue to work with the new field type.
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Convert the identified
data.
The conversion process lets you map the various values in your org to standard picklist values. For example, map U.S., USA, and United States to US.
-
Turn on the picklists for your
users.
We recommend that you configure state and country/territory picklist values, scan for affected data, and convert the identified data before taking this step. If don’t complete all the steps, users can use the picklists in new records. However, existing data that is incompatible with the new format can compromise data consistency and integrity across the two field formats.
- Optionally, rescan and fix customizations or records that have been created or edited since your first scan.
- Integration Values for State and Country/Territory Picklists
An integration value is a customizable text value that’s linked to a state or country/territory code. Integration values for states, countries, and territories default to the full ISO-standard state, country, and territory names. The way integration values function is similar to the way API names of custom fields and objects function. Configure integration values so integrations that you set up before enabling state and country/territory picklists continue to work. - Configure State and Country/Territory Picklists
Configuring state and country/territory picklists means choosing which states and countries you want to be available in your Salesforce org. It lets you make state and country/territory picklists available for purposes like importing data, working with external systems, and accessing picklist data from the Metadata API. - Standard Countries and Territories for Address Picklists
Salesforce provides 235 countries and territories as standard for country/territory address picklists. Additionally, some countries and territories have state codes with special considerations. - Edit State, Country, and Territory Details
To customize the states, countries, and territories in your picklists, edit their details. - State and Country/Territory Picklists and Metadata API
If you’re editing many state and country/territory picklist integration values, usingMetadata API is more efficient than editing values in Setup. - Prepare to Scan State, Country, and Territory Data and Customizations
Before switching from text-based state and country/territory fields to standardized state and country/territory picklists, scan your org to see how the change affects it. This discovery process shows you where and how state, country, and territory data appears in your org. The process also shows where this data is used in customizations, such as list views and reports. After you’ve analyzed the scan results, you can plan to convert your data, update your customizations, and turn on state and country/territory picklists. - Scan State and Country/Territory Data and Customizations
Scanning an organization for text-based state and country values reveals where and how text-based state and country data appears in existing records. - Prepare to Convert State, Country, and Territory Data
If your Salesforce organization includes text-based state, country, and territory values, you can convert that data to standardized picklist values. - Convert State and Country/Territory Data
To convert text-based state and country/territory data to picklist-compatible values, select specific text values and choose the standard values you want to map them to. For example, you can select all occurrences of “USA” and change them to “United States.” - Enable and Disable State and Country/Territory Picklists
When you enable state and country/territory picklists, the picklists are immediately available to users. However, it can take some time for Salesforce to populate the ISO code fields on existing records. If users try to edit the state or country/territory on a record before the code field is populated, they’re prompted to select a code value. - State, Country, and Territory Picklist Fields
Understand the state, country, and territory picklist fields. - State and Country/Territory Picklist Field-Syncing Logic
When you save records with state and country/territory picklist values, Salesforce syncs the records’ integration and code values for states and countries. You can’t directly edit state or country/territory integration values on record detail pages. You can directly edit records' state or country/territory integration values only with workflows, Apex code, API integrations, and so on. - State and Country/Territory Picklist Error Messages
Understand the errors that can occur when you try to save records with mismatched code and text values for states, countries, or territories.
