Programming instructions

Using SQL with ColdFusion 33

Using SQL with ColdFusion

ColdFusion communicates with your data source through a database interface called

JDBC. JDBC is a standard application programming interface (API) for accessing

information from different database systems and different storage formats.

About data sources

A data source is a complete database configuration that uses a JDBC driver to

communicate with a specific database. In ColdFusion, you must configure a data source

for each database file that you want to use. After you configure a data source, the

ColdFusion server is then capable of communicating with that data source through the

JDBC driver.

You configure data sources in ColdFusion by using the ColdFusion administrator.

Chapter 4, “Configuring Your Development Environment” on page 35 discusses how to

configure the sample data source file that is supplied for use with Part II of this book. For

more information about configuring a data source in ColdFusion, see Installing

ColdFusion MX or Developing ColdFusion MX Applications with CFML.

Writing SQL and CFML statements to interact with a data source

After ColdFusion makes a connection to the data source, you can interact with that

database by using SQL and ColdFusion.

To interact with an established data source, you need to include SQL statements in your

CFML statements; for example:

SELECT FirstName, LastName, DepartmentID

From Employee

</cfquery>

In the previous example, the first attribute of cfquery is the name of the query. The

second attribute of

cfquery defines the name of the data source. The SELECT statement

defines the fields (columns) to be retrieved from a tabled named

Employee.

CFML tags that interact with a database

The following table lists the CFML tags you can use to interact with a database:

In Part II of this book, you will be introduced to these tags when you use them to interact

with the sample database. For more information about interacting with a database, see

Developing ColdFusion MX Applications with CFML or CFML Reference.

Command Description

cfquery

To retrieve (query) information in a database.

cfinsert

To add records to a database.

cfupdate

To update information in a database.