Problems with variable names with dashes

[Guest]

I am trying to retrieve data from an XML file where some of the Element names contain a dash (-). If I try the following:

<cfset numItems = ArrayLen(mydoc.us-patent-grant.us-bibliographic-data-grant.references-cited.citation.XmlChildren)>

I get the error:
Element US is undefined in MYDOC.

I suspect that the '-' is causing the problems since if I change the element names so that they do not contain a dash my code works. Is there a code that I can use instead of dash? I am not creating the XML files so I cannot change its format.

Thanks for the help.

[joeDangelo]

<cfset numItems = ArrayLen(mydoc["us-patent-grant.us-bibliographic-data-grant"]["references-cited"].citation.XmlChildren)>

[Guest]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I tried it and now I get the following error:

Element us-patent-grant.us-bibliographic-data-grant is undefined in a Java object of type class coldfusion.xml.XmlNodeList referenced as

(I am new to XML and coldfusion)

[Guest]

Anyone else have any suggestions? I could use the help.
Thanks

[Guest]

Joe's suggestion was right, he just missed a period.

You should use:

<cfset numItems = ArrayLen (mydoc["us-patent-grant"]["us-bibliographic-data-grant"]["references-cited"].citation.XmlChildren)>


Do you see the pattern?

[Guest]

Thank you! That was it.

[Guest]

Thanks again