User Guide

Creating a query object from a text file 995
• If there is a text qualifier, you must surround all field values with the text qualifier character.
• To include the text qualifier character in a field, use a double character. For example, if the text
qualifier is ", use "" to include a quotation mark in the field.
• The first row of text is always interpreted as column headings, so that row is skipped. You can
override the file’s column heading names by specifying a different set of names in the
columns
attribute. You must specify a name for each column. You then use these new names in your
CFML code. However, ColdFusion never treats the first row of the file as data.
• When duplicate column heading names are encountered, ColdFusion adds an underscore
character to the duplicate column name to make it unique. For example, if two CustomerID
columns are found, the second is renamed "CustomerID_".
To create a query from a text file:
1. Create a text file with the following content:
OrderID,OrderNum,OrderDate,ShipDate,ShipName,ShipAddress
001,001,01/01/01,01/11/01,Mr. Shipper,123 Main Street
002,002,01/01/01,01/28/01,Shipper Skipper,128 Maine Street
2. Save the file as text.txt in the myapps directory under your web_root.
3. Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<cfhttp method="Get"
url="http://127.0.0.1/myapps/text.txt"
name="juneorders"
textqualifier="">
<cfoutput query="juneorders">
OrderID: #OrderID#<br>
Order Number: #OrderNum#<br>
Order Date: #OrderDate#<br>
</cfoutput>
<!--- Now substitute different column names --->
<!--- by using the columns attribute --->
<hr>
Now using replacement column names<br>
<cfhttp method="Get"
url="http://127.0.0.1/myapps/text.txt"
name="juneorders"
columns="ID,Number,ODate,SDate,Name,Address"
textqualifier="">
<cfoutput query="juneorders">
Order ID: #ID#<br>
Order Number: #Number#<br>
Order Date: #SDate#<br>
</cfoutput>
4. Save the file as query_textfile.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root and view it in
the web browser.