Coldfusion expression stored inside a variable...

[JakeFlynn]

I have a Coldfusion expression stored inside a coldfusion variable, for example:

<cfsavecontent time = #CreateODBCDateTime(now())#>
if i do not put cfoutputs around #CreateODBCDateTime(now())# then the var will
equal #CreateODBCDateTime(date)# this is what i want because that will get
stored and then later called:

<cfoutput>#time#</cfoutput>

now i would like that to output as the literal date eg(01/01/99) not
#CreateODBCDateTime(date)# but all it will do is output
#CreateODBCDateTime(date)# so basically is there any way to parse a statement
twice?

[JakeFlynn]

to explain what i am trying to do a little better i will add a more complete
example

<cfsavecontent
variable = "cust_query">
select * from table1 where
entered_date >= #CreateDate(Year(Now()), Month(Now()), 1)#
</cfsavecontent>

then... #cust_query# is stored in a database table as is:
insert into table1
values('select * from table1 where
entered_date >= #CreateDate(Year(Now()), Month(Now()), 1)#')

later i want to retrieve it and run it....

<CFQUERY name="cases" datasource="#Application.DSNIntranet#">
#custom_search.query_sql#
</CFQUERY>
but it says that sql does not know function #CreateDate(Year(Now()),
Month(Now()), 1)# because obviously that is a cf function that is not getting
parsed

[basky]

One way of solving this is to use some kind place holders for the date in the
saved query.
Ex:
select * from table1 where
entered_date >= %CURRENT_DATE%

While executing this query you can say

<CFQUERY name="cases" datasource="#Application.DSNIntranet#">
#replaceNoCase(custom_search.query_sql, "%CURRENT_DATE%",
CreateDate(Year(Now()), Month(Now()), 1), "all")#
</CFQUERY>

You can such multiple place holders in the query and you should search and
replace all these dynamic parameters at the runtime.

[JakeFlynn]

Basky thank you for your reply if I use the replace like that are you sure that it will then get parsed when it is needed?

[basky]

It sure will. There is no parsing involved here, you are just replacing the
occurrences of a substring with in a string.
Just want to make it clear once again, replace function is used on the saved
query (that is stored in the database in string format), replaceAll function
call is not part of the stored query string.

[OldCFer]

You might look at using DB functions for this sort of thing. I don't know how
complicated
these queries are going to get so it's hard to say.

select * from table1 where
entered_date >= GetDate()

This would work for MSSQL and could be used directly.

[JakeFlynn]

OldCFer thank you for your reply, the date's were a bit complicated and i had
already done the conversions needed in CF so i wanted to reuse that code. I
ended up using you suggestion and just doing the dates in sql thanks