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Roles are intermediate objects that link user profiles to permission lists. You can assign multiple roles to a user profile, and you can assign multiple permission lists to a role. Some examples of roles might be Employee, Manager, Customer, Vendor, and Student.

A manager is also an employee, and may also be a student. Roles enable you to mix and match access appropriately.

You have two options when assigning roles: assign roles manually or assign them dynamically. When assigning roles dynamically, you use PeopleCode, LDAP, and PeopleSoft Query rules to assign user profiles to roles programmatically.