Using the CFQUERY Tag

Use the CFQUERY tag to define a query on an application page. When ColdFusion encounters a CFQUERY tag on a page, it does the following:

Connects to the specified data source.
Performs SQL commands that are enclosed with the block.
Returns query variable values to the page.

The CFQUERY tag is one of the most frequently used CFML tags. You use it in conjunction with the CFOUTPUT tag so that you can retrieve and reference the data returned from a query.

Refer to the CFML Language Reference for ColdFusion Express for full CFQUERY syntax.

CFQUERY usage example

In this example, the query code tells ColdFusion to:

Use the HRApp data source to connect to the HRExpress.mdb database.
Store the retrieved data in the query variable EmpList

<CFQUERY NAME="EmpList" DATASOURCE="HRApp">
    You'll type SQL here
</CFQUERY>

The CFQUERY tag is a block tag.
Use the NAME attribute to name the query variable so that you can reference it later on the page.
Use the DATASOURCE attribute to name an existing data source that should be used to connect to a specific database.
Always surround attribute values with double quotes (").
Place SQL commands inside the CFQUERY block to tell the database what to process during the query.

Note:

The data source must exist in order to perform a successful query and that's why all examples reference HRApp; a data source delivered with the product.