User Guide

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CHAPTER 1
Reserved Words and Variables
This chapter provides information on Macromedia ColdFusion reserved words, and lists scope
variables.
Contents
Reserved words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Scope-specific built-in variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
ColdFusion tag-specific variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
CGI environment variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Reserved words
The following list indicates words you must not use for ColdFusion variables, user-defined
function names, or custom tag names. While some of these words can be used safely in some
situations, you can prevent errors by avoiding them entirely.
• Any name starting with cf. However, when you call a CFML custom tag directly, you prefix the
custom tag page name with cf_.
• Built-in function names, such as Now or Hash
• Scope names, such as Form or Session
• Operators, such as NE or IS
• The names of any built-in data structures, such as Error or File
• The names of any built-in variables, such as RecordCount or CGI variable names
• CFScript language element names such as for, default, or continue
Remember that ColdFusion is not case-sensitive. For example, all of the following are reserved
words: IS, Is, iS, and is.