| Before we move on to the final makeover exercise, let's have a quick introduction to structures. Structures are another complex data construct very similar to an array. As a matter of fact, they are sometimes known as associative arrays. Structures are very similar in organization and use to arrays, but instead of containing numerical references to element locations, they contain name/value pairs such as FirstName=Emma. The code in Listing 10.7 shows how we could retrieve all details for a particular employee and store them in a single structure variable. Listing 10.7 Employee Structure <!--- File: Structure1.cfm Description: Demo using queries and structures Author: Created: ---> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Structure 1</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <!--- create the structure ---> <CFSET stEmployeeDetails=StructNew()> <!--- retrieve database information. ---> <CFQUERY NAME="qEmployee" DATASOURCE="#MyAppDSN#"> SELECT * FROM Employees WHERE EmployeeID = 4 </CFQUERY> <!--- populate the structure ---> <CFSET stEmployeeDetails.EmployeeID=qEmployee.EmployeeID> <CFSET stEmployeeDetails.FirstName=qEmployee.FirstName> <CFSET stEmployeeDetails.LastName=qEmployee.LastName> <CFSET stEmployeeDetails.DepartmentID=qEmployee.DepartmentID> <CFSET stEmployeeDetails.Title=qEmployee.Title> <CFSET stEmployeeDetails.Email=qEmployee.Email> <CFSET stEmployeeDetails.Extension=qEmployee.Extension> <CFSET stEmployeeDetails.DateHired=qEmployee.DateHired> <!--- dump the structure ---> <CFDUMP VAR="#stEmployeeDetails#"> </BODY> </HTML> This code creates a structure using the StructNew() function. Note that we are using "st" as a variable prefix to denote that the EmployeeDetails variable is a structure (see the "Whats In a Name?" sidebar in Step 2). We then retrieve a particular employee's details using a query. Then we use a series of <CFSET> statements to add the details to the structure. Finally, we use the <CFDUMP> tag to display the contents of the structure. Figure 10.13 shows the result of this code. Figure 10.13. The Structure1.cfm browser display.  For more information on structure functions, see the Reference section of the www.LearnColdFusionMX.com web site. | 
