Structure notation

Object.property

You can reference a property, prop, of an object, obj, as obj.prop. This notation, also called dot notation, is useful for simple assignments, as in this example:

depts.John="Sales"

Use this notation only when you know the property names (keys) in advance and they are strings, with no special characters, numbers, or spaces. You cannot use the dot notation when the property, or key, is dynamic.

Associative arrays

If you do not know the key name in advance, or it contains spaces, numbers, or special characters, you can use associative array notation. This notation uses structures as arrays with string indexes; for example:

depts["John"]="Sales"

depts[employeeName] = "Sales"

You can use a variable (such as employeeName) as an associative array index. Therefore, enclose any literal key names in quotation marks.

For information on using associative array references containing variables, see Dynamically constructing structure references.

Structure

Use structure notation only when you create structures and set their initial values, not when you are accessing or updating structure data, and only on the right side of an assignment expression. This notation has the following format:

{keyName=value[,keyName=value]...}

where the square braces ([]) and ellipses (...) indicate optional contents that can be repeated.

The following example creates a structure that uses structure notation:

<cfset name={firstName = "John", lastName = "Smythe"}>