Query Parameters and Bindings

Custom Parameter Types

When passing a parameter to qb, it will infer the sql type to be used. If you pass a number, CF_SQL_NUMERIC will be used. If it is a date, CF_SQL_TIMESTAMP, and so forth. If you need more control, you can pass a struct with the parameters you would pass to cfqueryparam.

You can pass include any parameters you would use with cfqueryparam including null, list, etc. This applies anywhere parameters are used including where, update, and insert methods.

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .where( "id", "=", { value = 18, cfsqltype = "CF_SQL_VARCHAR" } );
MySQL
SELECT *
FROM `users`
WHERE `id` = ?

This can be used when inserting or updating records as well.

QueryBuilder
query.table( "users" )
    .insert( {
        "id" = { value 1, cfsqltype = "CF_SQL_VARCHAR" },
        "age" = 18,
        "updatedDate" = { value = now(), cfsqltype = "CF_SQL_DATE" }
    } );
MySQL
INSERT INTO `users`
    (`id`, `age`, `updatedDate`)
VALUES
    (?, ?, ?)

Strict Date Detection

By default, qb will try to determine if a variable is a date using the built-in isDate function. This can have some interesting effects with different formatted strings. You can opt in to stricter date detection which will check the underlying Java class of the value to determine if the value is a date. This is more accurate, but does require you to specifically pass date instances instead of strings. For this reason, it is currently opt-in to not break existing applications. It is likely to become the default in the next major version of qb.

You can opt in to stricter date detection by setting strictDateDetection = true in your moduleSettings in config/ColdBox.cfc.

moduleSettings = {
    "qb": {
        "strictDateDetection": true
    }
};

Numeric SQL Type

By default, qb will use the CF_SQL_NUMERIC SQL type when it detects a numeric binding. You can specify your own default SQL type to use with numeric values using the numericSQLType setting in your moduleSettings in config/ColdBox.cfc.

moduleSettings = {
    "qb": {
        "numericSQLType": "CF_SQL_INTEGER"
    }
};

There is an opt-in feature to better derive the numeric SQL type for database performance reasons. If you do opt in to this, qb will use a different SQL type for integers than decimals. You can opt in to this feature using the autoDeriveNumericType setting and can customize the SQL types by setting the integerSqlType and decimalSqlType settings.

moduleSettings = {
    "qb": {
        "autoDeriveNumericType": true,
        "integerSqlType": "CF_SQL_INTEGER",
        "decimalSqlType": "CF_SQL_DECIMAL"
    }
};

Automatic Scale Detection

In some combinations of database grammars and CFML engines, the scale argument on a cfqueryparam would default to 0. This would cause issues when attempting to insert a floating point number, even when using the correct SQL type (i.e., CF_SQL_DECIMAL) . In 8.5.0, qb now automatically calculates a scale based on the value provided if the value is a floating point number. This can be disabled by setting autoAddScale in your ColdBox config or passing autoAddScale = false when instantiating your QueryBuilder instance.

Bindings

Bindings are the values that will be sent as parameters to a prepared SQL statement. This protects you from SQL injection. In CFML, this uses cfqueryparam to parameterize the values.

If you need to inspect the bindings for the current query you can retrieve them in order using the getBindings method.

You can view the current SQL for the query with bindings inline for debugging purposes using the toSQL method.

Use these methods only for debugging. Modifying the bindings directly will likely cause issues when executing your query. Adding or removing bindings should be done using the public API.

getBindings

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

No arguments

This method returns the current bindings in order to be used for the query.

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .join( "logins", function( j ) {
        j.on( "users.id", "logins.user_id" );
        j.where( "logins.created_date", ">", dateAdd( "m", -1, "01 Jun 2019" ) );
    } )
    .where( "active", 1 );
Result
[
    { value = "01 May 2019", cfsqltype = "CF_SQL_TIMESTAMP"  },
    { value = 1, cfsqltype = "CF_SQL_NUMERIC" }
]

You can also retrieve the bindings associated to their corresponding types.

getRawBindings

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

No arguments

This method returns the current bindings to be used for the query associated to their corresponding types.

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .join( "logins", function( j ) {
        j.on( "users.id", "logins.user_id" );
        j.where( "logins.created_date", ">", dateAdd( "m", -1, "01 Jun 2019" ) );
    } )
    .where( "active", 1 );
Result
{
    "commonTables" = [],
    "select" = [],
    "join" = [
        { value = "01 May 2019", cfsqltype = "CF_SQL_TIMESTAMP"  },
    ],
    "where" = [
        { value = 1, cfsqltype = "CF_SQL_NUMERIC" }
    ],
    "union" = [],
    "insert" = [],
    "insertRaw" = [],
    "update" = []
};

addBindings

Adds a single binding or an array of bindings to a query for a given type.

NameTypeRequiredDefaultDescription

newBindings

Struct | Array<Struct>

true

A single binding or an array of bindings to add for a given type.

type

String

false

"where"

The type of binding to add.

addBindingsFromBuilder

Adds all of the bindings from another builder instance.

NameTypeRequiredDefaultDescription

qb

QueryBuilder

true

Another builder instance to copy all of the bindings from.