Saving the output of JSTL into a java variable

Question

Hi All, Apologies if this has been asked before, but i've been looking for an answer to this question for 2 hours and can't find anything..
I have a simple JSP page which queries a database. The database will only return one value, which is printed out perfectly with:
<c:forEach var="row" items="${qryPosts.rows}">
<c:set var="email" value="${row.email}" />
<c:out value="${row.email}" />
</c:forEach>
First question: Do i have to go through all this if I know there will only ever be one value returned from my SQL statement?
Second question: How can I get the returned value into a JSP variable, so I can use it in my java code.
Thanks very much to anyone who can help,
Regards,
Brett

Answer 1

First a couple of disclaimers. If you've been looking through this forum, you've probably come across these pointers before.
- don't use SQL in a JSP page. It should be in a Servlet/Bean.
- don't mix JSTL and scriptlet code within a JSP. It makes the page even worse than scriptlet alone.
Those are just recommendations based on my experience, and best practice.
Having said that, here are the answers to your questions
1 - No, you don't need to have a forEach loop
If you know that there will be one and only one result returned, you can get at it via the expression
${qryPosts.rows[0].email}
With regards to getting it out to java code
<c:set var="email" value="${qryPosts.rows[0].email}"/>
and then you can use this:
<jsp:useBean id="email" type="java.lang.String"/>
or scriptlet code like this:
<%
String email = pageContext.findAttribute("email");
%>
Cheers,
evnafets