An often mentioned complaint by ColdFusion developers is the lack of operators commonly found in other programming languages such as JavaScript. For example, instead of the greater-than (>) symbol we have been restricted to the more wordy GT or GREATER THAN operator. However, in ColdFusion 8 this has changed and we have more freedom to use familiar JavaScript operators in <cfscript> blocks.
In the following series of posts, I will introduce the changes and show some simple examples. The first in the series is Arithmetic Operators.
Arithmetic operators take numerical values (either literals or variables) as their operands and return a single numerical value. The standard arithmetic operators are addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), and division (/). These haven’t changed from ColdFusion version 7 to 8.
A key change comes with the use of Unary Operators. The unary operators require only one operand; they perform various operations such as incrementing/decrementing a value by one, negating an expression, or inverting the value of a boolean.
These operators work as they do in most other programming languages.
% (Modulus)
The modulus operator is used as follows:
var1 % var2
The modulus operator returns the first operand modulo the second operand, that is, var1 modulo var2, in the preceding statement, where var1 and var2 are variables. The modulo function is the integer remainder of dividing var1 by var2. For example, 12 % 5 returns 2.
In ColdFusion this is written:
<cfif myQuery.currentRow % 2></cfif>
A good use of the modulus operator would be to alternate row colours in tabular data. The above code could be wrapped around a CSS class, dynamically changing the name of the class on each row iteration.
++ (Increment)
The increment operator is used as follows:
var++ or ++var
This operator increments (adds one to) its operand and returns a value. If used postfix, with operator after operand (for example, x++), then it returns the value before incrementing. If used prefix with operator before operand (for example, ++x), then it returns the value after incrementing.
For example, if x is 10, then the statement y = x++ sets y to 10 and increments x to 11. If x is 10, then the statement y = ++x increments x to 11 and sets y to 11.
In ColdFusion, a simple example:
<cfset x = 10 /> <cfset y = x++ /> <cfdump var="#variables#" label="Increment Operator Test 1" />
The above code returns:
Switching the order of the operator to be before the variable:
<cfset x = 10 /> <cfset y = ++x /> <cfdump var="#variables#" label="Increment Operator Test 2" />
The above code returns; note that both variables return 11:
-- (Decrement)
The decrement operator is used as follows:
var-- or --var
This operator decrements (subtracts one from) its operand and returns a value. If used postfix (for example, x–), then it returns the value before decrementing. If used prefix (for example, –x), then it returns the value after decrementing.
For example, if x is three, then the statement y = x– sets y to 3 and decrements x to 2. If x is 3, then the statement y = –x decrements x to 2 and sets y to 2.
In ColdFusion, a slightly more complex example:
<cfscript>
//decrement the variable y
for(y=5; y > 0; y--)
{
writeOutput(y);
}
//returns 54321
</cfscript>The above code loops from 5 to 1, decrementing the value of y by 1 on each iteration. The returned output is therefore 54321.
We could now combine the increment and decrement operators to do even more complex operations. E.g.:
<cfscript> //create a new array arrTemp = arrayNew(1); //create a new variable for the array counter x = 1; //loop y, decrement the variable y for(y=5; y > 0; y--) { arrTemp[x++] = y; } </cfscript> <cfdump var="#arrTemp#" label="Combined Increment Decrement Operator Test" />
The above code loops from 5 to 1, decrementing the value of y by 1 on each iteration. At the same time, the value of x increments by 1 on each iteration and is used to define the array index, i.e. arrTemp[1].
The returned output can be displayed as follows:
Such code serves to demonstrate how you can set up complex operations without the need to use the following, antiquated operations:
<cfset x = incrementValue(x) /> <cfset y = y+1 /> <cfset a = decrementValue(a) /> <cfset b = b-1 />
- (Unary Negation)
The unary negation operator precedes its operand and negates it. For example, y = -x negates the value of x and assigns that to y; that is, if x were 3, y would get the value -3 and x would retain the value 3. This is not new to ColdFusion 8, but it is worth a mention.
In ColdFusion, this can be shown by the following:
<cfset x = 3 /> <cfset y = -x /> <cfdump var="#variables#" label="Unary Operator Test" />
The above code returns:
Ensure that the 
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