Displaying Variable Output; Working With Cfml Expressions - MACROMEDIA COLDFUSION MX 61-GETTING STARTED BUILDING COLDFUSION MX Getting Started

Displaying variable output

Output is what remains after the ColdFusion server processes the CFML tags on a page. Usually
the output has two parts:
•
Information that the user sees (for example, a confirmation message)
•
Information that is stored by the server as a result of processing (for example, user input
collected from a form)
One of the tags that ColdFusion provides to display output is the
tag instructs ColdFusion to process all the code between the
syntax for the
cfoutput
<cfoutput>
{normal html, text, and coldfusion processing instructions}
</cfoutput>
To return the value of a variable, you must always surround the variable name with pound signs
(#) and place the variable name between the
following code creates a variable and instructs the ColdFusion server to return the value of the
variable:
<cfset my_first_name = "Kaleigh">
<cfset my_last_name = "Smith">
<cfset my_full_name = variables.my_first_name & " " & variables.my_last_name>
<cfoutput>
#variables.my_full_name#
</cfoutput>
The following is the output:
Kaleigh Smith

Working with CFML expressions

Expressions are an important part of the ColdFusion language. Expressions are a collection of
different elements, ColdFusion variables, functions, and operators. You can think of them as
strings of text that consist of one or more of the following elements:
•
Literal text (string), numbers, dates, and other values
•
Variables
•
Functions
•
Operators (
&
Many examples of expressions were shown in this chapter; for example:
•
#variables.my_full_name#
•
DateFormat(Now())
•
my_first_name= "Kaleigh"
When you build expressions in ColdFusion, you can include simple and complex elements; how
you represent these elements determines how ColdFusion processes your program.
tag looks like this:
for joining statements,
cfoutput
start and end tags. For example, the
cfoutput
for addition, and so on)
+

Working with CFML expressions

tag. The
cfoutput cfoutput
start and end tags. The
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