Hierarchy of Parent-Child Instances of Same Record Type

You can create a hierarchy of records where parent and child records are of the same type. Each instance can be a parent of another instance of the same type. A parent record can be a parent of another instance of the same record type. Such behavior can be configured on the custom field definition of the child record, where:

The Record is Parent box is checked
List/Record selection is the same record type as the record type where the relation field is applied

Note:
Administrators can alternately model this behavior more easily on custom record types by checking the Hierarchy box on the custom record definition. See Custom Record Type Fields that Affect Parent-Child Relationship on Custom Record.

Example of Hierarchy of Parent Instances of the Same Record Type

An example of a hierarchy of the same record type relationship is a locomotive with several wagons. The record type is Train Carriage. Parent record instance 1 is Locomotive. Parent record instance 2 is Wagon 2 and is a child of parent record 1. Parent record 3 is Wagon 3 and is a child of parent record 2. This pattern continues until you reach the last wagon. The last wagon is the terminal child record. This terminal child record has an empty sublist with no other child records and is a child of the preceding parent record wagon.

The following example has four instances of the same the record type, Train Carriage.

Parent record instance Locomotive 1 has no associated parent but has associated instance (Wagon 2) in the child sublist
Parent record Wagon 2 has an association with its parent instance (Locomotive 1) and has an associated child record (Wagon 3) in the child sublist
Parent record Wagon 3 has an association with its parent instance (Wagon 2) and has an associated child record (Wagon Last) in the child sublist
Terminal Wagon Last has no instances associated in its child sublist but holds an association with its parent instance (Wagon 3)

Hierarchy of parent instances of the same record type diagram.

Example of Hierarchy of Parent Instances of the Same Record Type

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