Strings



In ColdFusion, text values are stored in strings. You specify strings by enclosing them in either single- or double-quotation marks. For example, the following two strings are equivalent:

"This is a string"

'This is a string'

You can write an empty string in the following ways:

  • "" (a pair of double-quotation marks with nothing in between)

  • '' (a pair of single-quotation marks with nothing in between)

Strings can be any length, limited by the amount of available memory on the ColdFusion server. However, the default size limit for long text retrieval (CLOB) is 64K. The ColdFusion Administrator lets you increase the limit for database string transfers, but doing so can reduce server performance. To change the limit, select the Enable retrieval of long text option on the Advanced Settings page for the data source.

Escaping quotation marks and number signs

To include a single-quotation character in a string that is single-quoted, use two single-quotation marks (known as escaping the single-quotation mark). The following example uses escaped single-quotation marks:

<cfset myString='This is a single-quotation mark: '' This is a double-quotation mark: "'> 
<cfoutput>#mystring#</cfoutput><br>

To include a double-quotation mark in a double-quoted string, use two double-quotation marks (known as escaping the double-quotation mark). The following example uses escaped double-quotation marks:

<cfset myString="This is a single-quotation mark: ' This is a double-quotation mark: """> 
<cfoutput>#mystring#</cfoutput><br>

Because strings can be in either double-quotation marks or single-quotation marks, both of the preceding examples display the same text:

This is a single-quotation mark: ' This is a double-quotation mark: "

To insert a number sign (#) in a string, you must escape the number sign, as follows:

"This is a number sign ##"