CFLib.org – Common Function Library Project

Description:
By default, ColdFusion will ignore empty elements in a list. This can be a problem if you want to treat empty elements as null entries. For example, the list "Goo,Foo,,Moo" is considered a 3 item list, since the ",," entry is ignored. ListFix will take these entries and replace them with a null character of your choosing. Version 3 now correctly handles multiple delimiters.

Return Values:
Returns a list.

Example:

<cfoutput>
<cfset l = "raymond,camden,,goober,pile">
#listFix(l)#<br>
<cfset l2 = "raymond,camden,,goober,pile,">
#listFix(l2)#<br>
<cfset l3 = "@raymond@camden@@goober@pile">
#listFix(l3,"@","_null_")#<br>
</cfoutput>

Parameters:

Full UDF Source:

/**
 * Fixes a list by replacing null entries.
 * This is a modified version of the ListFix UDF 
 * written by Raymond Camden. It is significantly
 * faster when parsing larger strings with nulls.
 * Version 2 was by Patrick McElhaney (pmcelhaney@amcity.com)
 * 
 * @param list      The list to parse. (Required)
 * @param delimiter      The delimiter to use. Defaults to a comma. (Optional)
 * @param null      Null string to insert. Defaults to "NULL". (Optional)
 * @return Returns a list. 
 * @author Steven Van Gemert (svg2@placs.net) 
 * @version 3, July 31, 2004 
 */
function listFix(list) {
var delim = ",";
  var null = "NULL";
  var special_char_list      = "\,+,*,?,.,[,],^,$,(,),{,},|,-";
  var esc_special_char_list  = "\\,\+,\*,\?,\.,\[,\],\^,\$,\(,\),\{,\},\|,\-";
  var i = "";
       
  if(arrayLen(arguments) gt 1) delim = arguments[2];
  if(arrayLen(arguments) gt 2) null = arguments[3];

  if(findnocase(left(list, 1),delim)) list = null & list;
  if(findnocase(right(list,1),delim)) list = list & null;

  i = len(delim) - 1;
  while(i GTE 1){
    delim = mid(delim,1,i) & "_Separator_" & mid(delim,i+1,len(delim) - (i));
    i = i - 1;
  }

  delim = ReplaceList(delim, special_char_list, esc_special_char_list);
  delim = Replace(delim, "_Separator_", "|", "ALL");

  list = rereplace(list, "(" & delim & ")(" & delim & ")", "\1" & null & "\2", "ALL");
  list = rereplace(list, "(" & delim & ")(" & delim & ")", "\1" & null & "\2", "ALL");
      
  return list;
}