How do I know if this variable is a file handle?

Report · Jul 27, 2012

G'day

(This has also been posted on StackOverflow)

Say I have this code:

function doFileStuff(){
    var file = "";
    try {
        file = fileOpen(filePath);
        // do stuff with file
    }
    finally {
        fileClose(file);
    }
}

If the fileOpen() process fails, the fileClose() call will error. What I need to do is this sort of thing (pseudocode):

if (isFile(file)){
    fileClose(file);
}

I know I can test if file is an empty string still, and this works for me here, but it's not testing what I should be testing: whether file is a file handle. I can check the object's Java class, but this again sounds a bit hacky to me, and there should be a CFML way of doing it.

There should be something like just isFile(), shouldn't there? I can't find anything like this in the docs.

Any thoughts / tips? I have gone into more depth in my investigations on my blog. it's too wordy for here.

Cheers for any help.

--

Adam

Report · Jul 27, 2012

Since "file = fileOpen(filePath)", can't you just remove the "file = ''" and check to see "if file" in the finally part?

^_^

Report · Jul 27, 2012

That would just defer the issue.. fileOpen() doesn't return a boolean, so I can't go:

if (fileOpen(filePath)){

fileClose(file);

}

fileOpen() returns a file object; or nothing if it fails. The whole thing is to identify whether it's a file. That's the question.

As per my original, it's dead easy to work around, provided one leverages known side effects of the situation (original variable state; that if it's a file it exposes some public properties; that one can doa getClass() on it via Java, etc), but one shouldn't have to work around something as fundamental as this. So I was wondering if I had missed something.

Seemingly not (based on feedback I've had from various quarters).

--

Adam