How to handle blank dates

Question

In my cfform, the user can select a starting and ending date
to search, a text field to search, or both the dates and text field
to search. Here is what I have :
<tr>
<td align="center" colspan="2">
<font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"
color="003366">
<b>From Date:</b></font>
<input type="text" size=11 name="fromDate_value"
value="">
<a
href="javascript:show_calendar4('document.getPSDocs.fromDate_value',
document.getPSDocs.fromDate_value.value)">
<img src="calendar.gif" width="25" height="25" border="0"
alt="Click here to Date Stamp"></a>
<font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"
color="003366">
<b>To Date:</b></font>
<input type="text" size=11 name="toDate_value"
value="">
<a
href="javascript:show_calendar4('document.getPSDocs.toDate_value',
document.getPSDocs.toDate_value.value)">
<img src="calendar.gif" width="25" height="25" border="0"
alt="Click here to Date Stamp"></a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"> 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" align="center">
<img height="3" src="../images/rule_navyH4W760Solid.gif"
width="759" border="0">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"> 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" colspan="2">
<font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"
color="003366">
<b>Pick Request
Number: </b></font>
<select name="search_type">
<option value="Contains">Contains</option>
<option value="Begins With">Begins With</option>
<option value="Ends With">Ends With</option>
<option value="Is">Is</option>
<option value="Is Not">Is Not</option>
<option value="Before">Before</option>
<option value="After">After</option>
</select>
<input type="text" name="prNumber" required="yes"
message="Request Number Must Be Entered for Search">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
In my action page, I build the query based on the search
criteria. Here is what I have so far :
<cfquery name="getPRNum" datasource="docuTrack">
SELECT *
FROM dbo.psFileInventory
<cfif form.search_type is "Contains" and form.prNumber is
not "">
Where dbo.psFileInventory.prNumber like '%#form.prNumber#%'
<cfelseif form.search_type is "Begins With" and
form.prNumber is not "">
Where dbo.psFileInventory.prNumber like '#form.prNumber#%'
<cfelseif form.search_type is "Ends With" and
form.prNumber is not "">
Where dbo.psFileInventory.prNumber like '%#form.prNumber#'
<cfelseif form.search_type is "Is" and form.prNumber is
not "">
Where dbo.psFileInventory.prNumber = '#form.prNumber#'
<cfelseif form.search_type is "Is Not" and form.prNumber
is not "">
Where dbo.psFileInventory.prNumber <>
'#form.prNumber#'
<cfelseif form.search_type is "Before" and form.prNumber
is not "">
Where dbo.psFileInventory.prNumber <= '#form.prNumber#'
<cfelseif form.search_type is "After" and form.prNumber
is not "">
Where dbo.psFileInventory.prNumber >= '#form.prNumber#'
</cfif>
<cfif form.fromDate_value is not " " and form.prNumber is
not " ">
And fileDate between #CreateODBCDate(form.fromDate_value)#
and #CreateODBCDate(form.toDate_value)#
<cfelseif form.fromDate_value is not " " and
form.prNumber is " ">
Where fileDate between #CreateODBCDate(form.fromDate_value)#
and #CreateODBCDate(form.toDate_value)#
</cfif>
order by prNumber
</cfquery>
I basically see to see what was select so that I can use the
like, not like, etc..Then I check to see if there is a date value
so that I can know whether to use AND in the select statement.
If both the field and dates are selected, then it would be
select where xxxx and date.......
If the field is selected only, then it would be select where
xxxx
If the date is selected only, then it would be select where
date xxxxxx
The problem is when I check for date is " " in the cfif
statement, keep getting error about null values. So I check for
date is null or date is not null, but that still does not work. It
works find when I check for both the field and date as not " ",
then I can use AND, but when I try to check for any other
combinataion, I get the NULL error.
How can I fix this ?

Answer 1

trojnfn wrote:
> Thanks for the reply.
>
> Does this function work like isDefined ?
>
> To check for the existence of a date so that I can build
my query, I would
> have :
> <cfif isDate(start_date) and field is not " ">
> And date between .xxxxxx
> <cfelse>
> <cfif isDate(start_date) and field is " ">
> where date between xxxxx
> </cfquery>
>
> Is this how it works ?
>
now that's a bit of convoluted logic there...
how about:
<cfif isdate(yourdate)>
<cfif yourfield is " ">
<cfelse>
</cfif>
</cfif>
you can add a <cfelse> in the outer cfif if you need to
have a separate
condition for yourdate NTO being a date
another thing i noticed: what's up with " "? i mean, why a
space between
the quotes? you know that a blank form field does NOT have a
space as
value, right? so if you are checking that a user has entered
something
in a field or not, and you are using <cfif somefiled is "
">, if a user
did not fill in that field your cfif will return FALSE; if
you used
<cfif somefield is ""> it would have returned TRUE.
i suggest instead of checking for a blank value of a filed,
check the
length of that value instead: <cfif len(trim(somefield))
is 0>
hth
Azadi Saryev
Sabai-dee.com
http://www.sabai-dee.com