Data types

ColdFusion is considered typeless because you do not explicitly specify variable data types.

However, ColdFusion data, the constants and the data that variables represent, do have data types, which correspond to the ways the data is stored on the computer.

ColdFusion data belongs to the following type categories:

Category

Description and types

Simple

Represents one value. You can use simple data types directly in ColdFusion expressions. ColdFusion simple data types are:

  • strings A sequence of alphanumeric characters enclosed in single or double quotation marks, such as “This is a test.”

  • integers A sequence of numbers written without quotation marks, such as 356.

  • real numbers, such as -3.14159

  • Boolean values Use True, Yes, or 1 for true and False, No, or 0 for false. Boolean values are not case sensitive.

  • date-time values ColdFusion supports a variety of data formats. For more information, see Date and time formats.

Complex

A container for data. Complex variables generally represent more than one value. ColdFusion built-in complex data types are:

  • arrays

  • structures

  • queries

Binary

Raw data, such as the contents of a GIF file or an executable program file

Object

COM, CORBA, Java, web services, and ColdFusion Component objects: Complex objects that you create and access using the cfobject tag and other specialized tags.
Note: ColdFusion does not have a data type for unlimited precision decimal numbers, but it can represent such numbers as strings and provides a function that supports unlimited precision decimal arithmetic. For more information, see PrecisionEvaluate in the CFML Reference.

For more information on ColdFusion data types, see Using ColdFusion Variables.