How to create dependent picklist in salesforce

Dependant Picklists are those the values of which depend on the chosen value of another field.

Lemme tell you with a simple example.

Let's say there are 2 Picklist fields -- Country and States. You might of come across such scenarios where if you choose a value , let's say India in the Country field and then move to the State field to choose the State, you would only see the states that belong to the chosen value- India . So you would not find states in the State field that belong to any other country .

Here the value of the State field is dependent on the Country field. Here State field is called the Dependent field.

How to create dependent picklist in salesforce

Let's do it here :

At first create 2 custom Picklist fields , following the summarized steps here :  Setup |[ Customize | Create ] | choose the object where you would want to create the Picklist | New | and then follow the steps to create the picklist.

Now, after creating Country and the State Picklists, just go back to the Custom Object Definition Detail page and then click on Field Dependencies, that would be there in the Custom Fields and Relationships section .

Custom Fields & Relationships

Then click on New to create a new field dependency

Choose the Controlling and then Dependent Fields

*Controlling Field	--None--  chk1 chk2 Country State
*Dependent Field	--None--Country State

The Controlling Field should be Country and the Dependent Field should be the State. This ensures that the values of the State Field are dependent on the Country Field.

Then click on Continue

Here mark the appropriate States to their respective countries by selecting the values in the respective boxes and then clicking on Include Values.

Showing Columns: 1 - 5 (of 5) < Previous | Next >    View All     Go to  Country:   India   China   USA   Germany   Russia   State:   Andhra Pradesh   Andhra Pradesh   Andhra Pradesh   Andhra Pradesh   Andhra Pradesh   Arunachal Pradesh   Arunachal Pradesh   Arunachal Pradesh   Arunachal Pradesh   Arunachal Pradesh   Assam   Assam   Assam   Assam   Assam   Gujarat   Gujarat   Gujarat   Gujarat   Gujarat   Karnataka   Karnataka   Karnataka   Karnataka   Karnataka   Madhya Pradesh   Madhya Pradesh   Madhya Pradesh   Madhya Pradesh   Madhya Pradesh   Maharashtra   Maharashtra   Maharashtra   Maharashtra   Maharashtra   Orissa   Orissa   Orissa   Orissa   Orissa   Tamil Nadu   Tamil Nadu   Tamil Nadu   Tamil Nadu   Tamil Nadu   Uttar Pradesh   Uttar Pradesh   Uttar Pradesh   Uttar Pradesh   Uttar Pradesh   Alabama   Alabama   Alabama   Alabama   Alabama   Alaska   Alaska   Alaska   Alaska   Alaska   Arizona   Arizona   Arizona   Arizona   Arizona   Arkansas   Arkansas   Arkansas   Arkansas   Arkansas   California   California   California   California   California   Colorado   Colorado   Colorado   Colorado   Colorado  Showing Columns: 1 - 5 (of 5) < Previous | Next >    View All

Click on Save to save the changes.

We have now created a field dependency between 2 Picklist fields - Country and State.

Now go back to the object where you have created the picklist and check if you are able to see Albama in the State Picklist when you have chosen India in the Country picklist.

Dependent Fields

Country	--None--IndiaChinaUSAGermanyRussia
State	--None--Andhra PradeshArunachal PradeshAssamGujaratKarnatakaMadhya PradeshMaharashtraOrissaTamil NaduUttar Pradesh