Deleting Data with ColdFusion

ColdFusion is very efficient at adding and updating data, but not at deleting it. DELETE is always a dangerous operation, and the ColdFusion developers didn't want to make it too easy to delete data by mistake.

To delete data in a ColdFusion template, you must use the SQL DELETE statement, as shown in Chapter 6 for an explanation of the DELETE statement.

Listing 14.12. delete1.cfmDeleting Table Data with SQL DELETE

<!---
Name:        delete1.cfm
Author:      Ben Forta (ben@forta.com)
Description: Table row delete demo
Created:     12/21/04
--->
<!--- Check that FilmID was provided --->
<cfif NOT IsDefined("FilmID")>
<h1>You did not specify the FilmID</h1>
 <cfabort>
</cfif>
<!--- Delete a movie --->
<cfquery datasource="ows">
DELETE FROM Films
WHERE FilmID=#FilmID#
</cfquery>
<!--- Page header --->
<cfinclude template="header.cfm">
<!--- Feedback --->
<h1>Movie deleted</h1>
<!--- Page footer --->
<cfinclude template="footer.cfm">

No <cfdelete> tag exists in ColdFusion. The only way to delete rows is to use a SQL DELETE.