In this quick tip, I’m going to show you how to use the reduce() function in tandem with the fat arrow operator in ColdFusion 2018 to return a query as an array of structures.  In Lucee, returning an array of structs from a query is as simple as adding a returntype=”array” attribute to the <cfquery> tag.  This doesn’t exist in ColdFusion.  This example executes a query like normal, but applies the reduce() function on the return to convert the query object into an array of structures.

public array function getUser (numeric id) {
    local.SQL = "SELECT users.* FROM users WHERE (1 = 1)";
    local.Parameters = {};

if (!isNull(arguments.id)) {
local.SQL &= ” AND (id = :id)”;
local.Parameters.insert( ‘id’, { cfsqltype: ‘integer’, value: arguments.id } );
}

local.Result = queryExecute(local.SQL, local.Parameters);

return local.Result.reduce((result, row) => {
result.append(row);
return result;
}, []);
}

Please note; the fat arrow operator was introduces in ColdFusion 2018 update 5 and ColdFusion 2016 update 12.  Installations before this hot fix will not work.