User Guide

30 Chapter 3 Querying a Database

Outputting Query Data

After you define a query on a page, you can use the cfoutput tag with the query

attribute to specify the query object that contains the data you want to output to a

page. When you use the

query attribute:

• ColdFusion loops over all the code contained within the

cfoutput block, once for

each row returned from a database.

• You must reference specific column names within the

cfoutput block to output

the data to the page.

• You can place text, CFML tags, and HTML tags inside or surrounding the

cfoutput block to format the data on the page.

• You do not have to specify the query object name when you refer to a query

column. For example, if you specify the Emplist query in your

cfoutput tag, you

can refer to the Firstname column in the Emplist query as either

Emplist.Firstname or just Firstname.

The

cfoutput tag accepts a variety of optional attributes but, ordinarily, you use the

query attribute to define the name of an existing query.

To output query data on your page:

1Return to empList.cfm in ColdFusion Studio.

2 Edit the file so that it appears as follows:

<html>

<head>

<title>Employee List</title>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Employee List</h1>

SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary, Contract

FROM Employee

</cfquery>

#FirstName#, #LastName#, #Salary#, #Contract#<br>

</cfoutput>

</body>

</html>

3 Save the file as emplist.cfm.

4 View the page in a browser.

A list of employees appears in the browser, with each line displaying one row of

data.

You created a ColdFusion application page that retrieves and displays data from a

database. At present, the output is raw. You will learn how to format the data in the

next chapter.

Reviewing the code