User Guide

ToString 893
Parameters
Usage
This function can convert simple values and binary values that do not contain Byte zero. If this
function cannot convert a value, it throws an exception. This function can also convert an XML
document object to a string XML representation.
Macromedia recommends that you use the
CharsetEncode function to convert binary data to a
string.
Example
<h3>ToString Example</h3>
<!---- Initialize data. ------>
<cfset charData = "">
<!----- Create string of ASCII characters (32-255) and concatenate them. ---->
<cfloop index = "data" from = "32" to = "255">
<cfset ch = chr(data)>
<cfset charData = charData & ch>
</cfloop>
<p>The following string is the concatenation of characters (32 to 255)
from the ASCII table.<br>
<cfoutput>#charData#</cfoutput></p>
<!------ Create a Base64 representation of this string. ---->
<cfset data64 = toBase64(#charData#)>
<p>
The following string is the Base64 representation of the string.<br>
<cfoutput>#data64#</cfoutput></p>
<!---- Create a binary representation of Base64 data. --->
Parameter Description
value Value to convert to a string; can be a simple value such as an integer, a binary
object, or an XML document object.
encoding The character encoding (character set) of the string. Optional for binary data,
Generates an error if used for a simple value or XML document object.
The following list includes commonly used values:
• utf-8
• iso-8859-1
• windows-1252
• us-ascii
• shift_jis
• iso-2022-jp
• euc-jp
• euc-kr
• big5
• euc-cn
• utf-16
For more information on character encoding, see:
www.w3.org/International/O-charset.html.
The default value is the encoding of the page on which the function is called. See
cfcontent.