Dynamic returntype in CFC function?

WolfShade wrote: Is there a way to dynamically set a function returntype in a CFC? For example; if I have a function that contains a 700 line query, and need it to work with two different objects, each of which requires a different format.. .. instead of having two 700+ line functions, one to return a query and the other to return a struct, is there a way to tell the function which format to return the data in?  Can it be passed using CFARGUMENT?

Yes, why not. You could do it as follows (with a choice to pass the argument returnType="query" or returnType="struct" to the function):

<cfcomponent>

<cffunction returntype="any">

<cfargument name="returnType">

...

...

<cfif arguments.returnType is "query">

<cfreturn someQuery>

<cfelse>

<cfreturn someStruct>

</cfif>

</cffunction>

</cfcomponent>

Is there a way to dynamically set a function returntype in a CFC?

It looks like your requirement here has changed anyhow, but to answer the question you actually asked: no, this is not possible.  The returntype is needed at compile time, whereas any dynamic determination is done at runtime, after the code is already compiled.

For example; if I have a function that contains a 700 line query,

Really? Ye gods.  How?

and need it to work with two different objects, each of which requires a different format..

As Dan said: have two functions.  One which returns the query, one which calls that function, messes with it, and returns a struct.

Someone suggested using returntype="any", and whilst that's possible, having one function which could possibly return two different types of data is... um... "less than ideal".  As a rule, a function should do one thing, so having code that either does x or does y is doing two things.

--

Adam

I would write 2 functions.  The first would contain all the sql and return a query.  The second would call the first and process accordingly.

Just set returntype="any". Problem solved and works a charm.

Why not use the CFC return type of "any" ?