ColdFusion String is a Java String

ColdFusion strings are Java Strings internally, which means they are an Object of class “java.lang.String” . In this post, I will try and use some of these Java String functions that can be applied directly to a ColdFusion string variable. I understand that most of these have been discussed in bits and pieces all over the blogosphere but I am just building up a cumulative list of these functions.

The functions that I tried are below :-
.compareTo()
.compareToIgnoreCase()
.equals()
.equalsIgnoreCase()
.charAt()
.concat()
.endsWith()
.startsWith()
.indexOf()
.lastIndexOf()
.length()
.matches()
.split()
.substring()
.toLowerCase()
.toUpperCase()
.trim()

Below is some sample code :-

String Comparison :-

What I noted is that, the ColdFusion CompareNoCase() returns -1 if the strings dont match whereas the Java compareTo() returns the actual difference the strings (-78 in the above example).

String Concatenation :-

String Find and Replace :-

// find the substring of a string
strSub = myStr.substring(2,11); // this means start from 2nd character and stop at 11th
//CF equivalant
strSubCF = Mid(myStr,3,9); // this means start from 3 and go on for 9 characters , so upto 12

// Find the first occurence of a string in another string
firstIndex = myStr.indexOf("ColdFusion");

// Find the last occurence of a string in another string
lastIndex = myStr.lastIndexOf("n");

// equivalant in CF
firstIndexCF = FindNoCase("ColdFusion", myStr);

// See if a String matches a regular expression or not
strMatches = myStr.matches(".+"); // tell the regex to get as greedy as it can

// equivalant in CF
//Refind() or RefindNoCase()
strMatchesCF = RefindNocase(".+",myStr);

// replace one or all occurences of a regex in a string
strReplace = myStr.replace("n" , "nn");
strReplaceAll = myStr.replaceAll(".+a","_");// replace anything upto the first a with a _
strReplaceFirst = myStr.replaceFirst(".+a","_"); // replace first occurence

//equivalant in CF
//ReplaceNoCase() or REReplaceNocase()

// returns the character at the specified index
findChr = myStr.charAt(15).toString();

Miscellaneous :-

And this one is my favorite, by far. The Split() function. The only way to do this in native CF would be using List functions with delimiters.

So, as you can see, there is a completely different way of doing String manipulations if we use the underlying Java functions. It makes it much more flexible and easier to write. However, not sure about the compatibility with BlueDragon or Railo as I havent tested this code on any of those. But as long as a String is an Object of java.lang.String, this all should work, in theory.

| Posted by Anuj Gakhar in ColdFusion

Comments:

2 Responses to “ColdFusion String is a Java String”

Glenn on 24 Jul 2008 at 12:43 am #

Great tip – thanks!
Anuj Gakhar on 24 Jul 2008 at 8:16 am #

Thanks Glenn.:)

Anuj @ ColdFusion, Flex and some more….