Multi-select SFDC field sync to Marketo creating different values

[Devraj_Grewal]

Hi Community,

I have a multi-select field in SFDC entitled "Job Function" and in SFDC the values are listed in alphabetical order like this: "Executive; Operations" or "Finance; HR". However, when that field is synced to Marketo, some records have the value "Executive;Operations" and others have "Operations;Executive". I attempted to mass update all of the "Operations;Executive" to "Executive;Operations" but every time the sync occurs, the value is reverted back to "Operations;Executive". "Finance; HR" syncs over in the correct alphabetical order, so some combination of values must lead to the issue.

Any idea as to why this is? It is making filtering by this field difficult since I need to accommodate two different values.

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

Yeah, by definition picklist values do not have a defined de/serialization (i.e. stringification) order -- so you must never filter on them as such.

[Devraj_Grewal]

Thanks Sanford. That's unfortunate. What's odd is that some are in the correct order and others are not, even when it is the same value.

[Devraj_Grewal]

I'll just have to use the workaround to ensure I capture all people meeting the criteria:

"Job Function: contains: Executive"

AND

"Job Function: contains: Operations"

[SanfordWhiteman]

Yeah, don't know where exactly the (re)ordering comes from, but it makes sense that the order is not fixed. Otherwise, orange;apple;pear would have to be considered an invalid value.

[Victoria_Chu]

Hi Devraj, I was poking around the community to see if anyone knows if Marketo supports syncing the values of a multi-select field to a multi-select field in SFDC, so the opposite of your current sync. How would that display on the SFDC side? I can't imagine SFDC would be able to take the multiple values and properly display them in SFDC. (Unless I just use a string field and concatenate the selections by a semicolon.) Let me know if you have any thoughts, thanks!

[SanfordWhiteman]

if Marketo supports syncing the values of a multi-select field to a multi-select field in SFDC, so the opposite of your current sync.

That's not the opposite, that's exactly what Devraj has.

Unless I just use a string field and concatenate the selections by a semicolon.

A multi-select field is stored as a semicolon-delimited field in Marketo.

[Victoria_Chu]

Hey Sanford, I'm looking to sync the data only from Marketo to Salesforce, never the other way around.

How would a semicolon-delimited value in Marketo be displayed in Salesforce?

[SanfordWhiteman]

That's the standard way that multi-select picklists are synced to Salesforce, Victoria.

Salesforce has a concept of an order, while Marketo itself does not. Although in fact Strings have no internal ordering mechanism, the idea is it's a serialization format -- a string-ification -- of a more complex underlying datatype that does have ordering. The meaning is the same in Marketo no matter what.

I think you're imagining a mismatch where there isn't one.

[Victoria_Chu]

Just to clarify, the standard way multi-select picklist values are synced to Salesforce is semicolon-delimited values, correct?