Using a string variable as a query SQL statement

<cfquery name="qSBJs" datasource="cfBAA_odbc">             "#sql_txt#"         </cfquery>

You have to remember two things here:

1) Everything between the cfquery tags is passed to the DB driver.  Even if your sql_text string was syntactically correct, would you want to be wrapping it in quotes?  No.  The string between the CFQUERY tags should resolve to valid SQL.

2) CF by default escapes single quotes in variable values when the variable is used within <cfquery> tags.  This is an attempt to minimise SQL injection.  However if your variable holds your entire SQL string, you probably DO NOT want the single quotes escaped across the board.

I've tried using no " or # or just # or just " but nothing works.

When something "doesn't work", make sure to tell us why you think it's not working, eg any error message, or the screen is blank, or it does something odd, or what.  There are plenty of ways for something to "not work".

<cfquery name="qSBJs" datasource="cfBAA_odbc" sql="#sql_txt#">

You could have circumvented that experiment completely by reading the docs first:

http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/Tags_p-q_17.html#1102316

The docs will always state all the available attributes.  There's no SQL attribute.

nope.  I wish there was a sql property I could fill *before* the execution of the query.  Any suggestions?

What version of CF are you using?  If it's CF9, you can use the Query Service too:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/9.0/CFMLRef/WSe9cbe5cf462523a0693d5dae123bcd28f6d-7ffb.html

However there's nothing wrong with simply passing a string variable through to a <cfquery> call, provided the SQL syntax is correct.

Knowing your error message would help.

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Adam