Why is ColdFusion altering the values in my query results?

Question

This is a weird one I've never noticed before.

I am running a SELECT query in ColdFusion 8 against an iSeries/DB2 database.

Here's the query in it's simplest form:

<cfquery name="qMyData" datasource="#APPLICATION.DataSource#">
    SELECT  'XXX  111'
    FROM    MYLIB.MYTABLE
</cfquery>

The value being selected is XXX 111 (two spaces between the two strings). The value returned by the query is XXX 111 (it removes the second space):

<cfdump var="#qMyData#" /> 

returns the following query result:

<TABLE class=cfdump_query>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TH style="CURSOR: hand" class=query title="click to collapse" onclick=cfdump_toggleTable(this); colSpan=5>query</TH></TR>
<TR bgColor=#eeaaaa>
<TD style="CURSOR: hand" class=query title="click to collapse" onclick=cfdump_toggleRow_qry(this);>&nbsp;</TD>
<TD class=query>00001</TD>
<TR>
<TD style="CURSOR: hand" class=query title="click to collapse" onclick=cfdump_toggleRow_qry(this);>1</TD>
<TD vAlign=top>XXX 111 </TD>

Why is ColdFusion removing the second space? Is there a workaround to ensure that I am getting the EXACT value I'm trying to retrieve?

Answer 1

ColdFusion isn't removing the whitespace, it's the browser, or more directly, HTML.

If you output your values like @Tomalak said, or something like this:

<cfoutput query="qMyData">
#replace(qMyData.myColumn," ","&nbsp;","all")#
</cfoutput>

You will see that the whitespace is there.

Check this out: http://www-sul.stanford.edu/tools/tutorials/html2.0/whitespace.html

You should replace your whitespace with non-breaking spaces to avoid the collapse.

Answer 2

The given answer is less than ideal, I think.

Firstly as others have touched on, the collapse of sequence of white space characters is part of the HTML specification.

If you want to preserve whitespace you should not simply change all the spaces to   entities - that's not what that entity is for. It's for a space that doesn't break. It's not to preserve embedded white space.

@DanBracuk gives you the most semantically correct answer: if you want to preserve these runs of space when you are rendering text in the browser, you should use <pre />. That's what it's for, and it's the correct tool for the job.

Answer 3

I agree with Blaise that it's browser which is removing extra whitespaces in html output.
You should use format attribute to get your expected result:

<cfdump var="#qMyData#" format="text" />