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Ben Nadel at CFCamp 2023 (Freising, Germany) with: Maximilian Kwapil
Ben Nadel at CFCamp 2023 (Freising, Germany) with: Maximilian Kwapil

QueryNew() Type Casting Issues With Manually Altered Queries

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I am having this really strange problem involving a query of queries that I have never encountered before. Basically I am building a query with the QueryNew() method:

<cfset REQUEST.SearchQuery = QueryNew(
"title, date, preview, link, score",
"VARCHAR, DATE, VARCHAR, VARCHAR, INTEGER"
) />

Then I build the query based on other queries. If I display this one, at this point, it's totally fine. After building the query I do a QofQ like so:

<cfquery name="REQUEST.SearchQuery" dbtype="query">
SELECT title
FROM REQUEST.SearchQuery
ORDER BY
score DESC,
[date] DESC
</cfquery>

This sometimes throws the following error: " Error casting an object of type to an incompatible type. This usually indicates a programming error in Java, although it could also mean you have tried to use a foreign object in a different way than it was designed."

I have narrowed it down to the line of code that causes the "casting" issue. It happens when I update the SCORE value. It really doesn't matter how it is updated as long as it is set by a method call.

For example, the following cause NO ERROR:

<cfset REQUEST.SearchQuery[ "score" ][ REQUEST.SearchQuery.CurrentRow ] = 100 />
<cfset REQUEST.SearchQuery[ "score" ][ REQUEST.SearchQuery.CurrentRow ] = 0 />
<cfset REQUEST.SearchQuery[ "score" ][ REQUEST.SearchQuery.CurrentRow ] =
REQUEST.SearchQuery[ "score" ][ REQUEST.SearchQuery.CurrentRow ] />

However, the following all cause error:

<cfset REQUEST.SearchQuery[ "score" ][ REQUEST.SearchQuery.CurrentRow ] = ArrayLen( arrCriteria ) />
<cfset REQUEST.SearchQuery[ "score" ][ REQUEST.SearchQuery.CurrentRow ] =
Max( 5, REQUEST.SearchQuery[ "score" ][ REQUEST.SearchQuery.CurrentRow ] ) />

Heck, even this causes errors:

REQUEST.SearchQuery[ "score" ][ REQUEST.SearchQuery.CurrentRow ] =
Max( REQUEST.SearchQuery[ "score" ][ REQUEST.SearchQuery.CurrentRow ],
REQUEST.SearchQuery[ "score" ][ REQUEST.SearchQuery.CurrentRow ]
) />

Its like any function call that returns a number corrupts the SCORE value for the QofQ.

NOW, EVEN MORE CRAZY, if I take out the data types in the QueryNew() method, so that it is just:

<cfset REQUEST.SearchQuery = QueryNew(
"title, date, preview, link, score",
) />

, the whole thing works like a charm. CRAZY! I have posted this to the CFTalk list... can't wait to see what people's solutions are.

Reader Comments

1 Comments

Ben,
I had the same issue in a different context. I was attempting to add boolean columns to 2 queries using the QueryAddColumn function and specifying the column type as BIT. From this I was UNIONing the QUERY results together using QofQ. The error disappeared after I removed the BIT casting parameter from the QueryAddColumn functions with your recommendation.

Thanks for posting this. You saved me a ton of time with that coding gem.

Thans,
Mike

1 Comments

Just had this after some seemingly minor changes to a page... it turns out, moving a query object from the unnamed scope to the session makes then entire structure more type-sensitive.

I got a "Error casting..." message for:

SELECT * FROM session.st_invoice.query WHERE division_code > 0;

...despite that...

SELECT * FROM st_invoice.query WHERE division_code > 0;

...worked fine, having changed NOTHING else in the code except moving the QueryNew and all its relevant commands to write directly to the session variable.

It took me about 5 minutes to figure out What, but I spent the better part of the day on "why" before coming to the realization that if I set division code with JavaCast, it worked just fine...

15,640 Comments

@Christopher,

That is odd. I wonder why the scope change would have any change at all in the sensitivity. I didn't see from your code, though, where the JavaCast() made a difference.

1 Comments

You are the man Ben! I was absolutely stumped by this crappy error message and my experience with QoQ is seriously lacking. Still got inspiration when I read about JavaCast() on numbers. Solved the error.

I wish the Coldfusion had proper debugging tools like Java.

any way thank you very much and to everyone else who uses this site.

Just for the error was caused by a variable I was using that had a number stored. However the Cold fusion debugger only complained when I tried to sort my newly created query. Oh well, I won't forget this any time soon.

thanks

Eish

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Ben Nadel