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Boolean Saves Time, and Space by: David Patricola

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Boolean Saves Time, and Space
by David Patricola <david.patricola@mindspring.com>

Boolean values can be a time trimmer when you're crunching 10 hours of code in a 5 hour deadline. IF statements can become quite burdensome at times, constantly typing out the conditional. With boolean values, you can shortcut that conditional typing slightly. Here is why.

<cfset flag = 1>
<cfset results = "">

<cfif flag eq 1>
    <cfset results = "foo">
<cfelse>
   <cfset results = "bar">
</cfif>

Pretty simple, right? No hidden functionality here. Let's take a "little off the top", barbershop-style, showing you how I do it.

<cfset flag = 1>
<cfset results = "">

<cfif flag>
     <cfset results = "foo">
<cfelse>
     <cfset results = "bar">
</cfif>

Voila! Overall, it's not much, but with IF statements in bulk this can be a helluva little trick.

How does it work? Well, the value of flag is set to "1". In boolean terms, 1 means true/on, while 0 means false/off (Access DB users will notice this as well). Since an IF statement, at its base, merely checks one of two possible conditions for a variable, this works perfectly.

<cfif flag> literally processes to <cfif 1>, and since 1 means "true", that part of the IF statement is executed.

Coincidentally, this technique can be done if your variable is has a value of "TRUE" or "FALSE", as ColdFusion treats these two words in the same manner as 1/0. Now, back to your regularly scheduled program.

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