How to escape the character in a string?

Question

I have the following code that is causing an error. I'm
attempting to use < (less than) character in a string that is
part of a dynamic query:
<cfif url.age eq 1>
<cfset askAge = " < 15">
<cfelseif url.age eq 10>
<cfset askAge = " Between 56 and 60">
<cfelseif url.age eq 11>
<cfset askAge = " > 60">
</cfif>
The error occurs as a result of the line <cfset askAge = "
< 15">. The > 60 works fine. What I need is to build the
SQL statement SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE age < 15
ColdFusion sets the string properly but when I try to run the
query I guess it thinks I'm trying to open a tag. The exact error
is:
The content beginning "< " is not legal markup. Perhaps
the " " (&#20;) character should be a letter.
The content beginning "< " is not legal markup. Perhaps
the " " () character should be a letter.
I can't use the ASCII code for this character as the database
will obviously crap out.
Any help would be greatly appreciated and many thanks in
advance.
Dave

Answer 1

Dave,
What if you passed off the output of the lt/gt symbols to the
query itself?
Something like,
<cfif url.age eq 1>
<cfset compareOperator = "less"/>
<cfset askAge = "15">
<cfelseif url.age eq 10>
<cfset compareOperator = "between"/>
<cfset askAge = " 56 and 60">
<cfelseif url.age eq 11>
<cfset compareOperator = "greater"/>
<cfset askAge = "60">
</cfif>
Then in the query:
<cfquery name="qTest" datasource="dsn">
SELECT * FROM myTable
WHERE age
<cfswitch expression="#compareOperator#">
<cfcase value="less">
<
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="greater">
>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="between">
BETWEEN
</cfcase>
<cfdefaultcase>
=
</cfdefaultcase>
</cfswitch>
#askAge#
</cfquery>
Probably a better way, at least a more efficient way, but
just a thought...cfswitch processed pretty quickly and this would
remove any issues with trying to use <> symbols.
Cheers,
Craig