I love lists in CFML. I try to use lists whenever possible. They're efficient, clean, and powerful. I've wished for a long time that SQL Server and Oracle had built in list functions that were as easy to use as the CFML list functions. I'm not going to go over all of the list functions here, but I will cover a few examples and ways they can make your life easier.
Just as in Rookie Mistakes Part 1, this post will cover mistakes that we've all made at one point or another. These are things that seasoned developers instinctively know to do, but beginners may not realize are better or more efficient. Some of this post is based loosely on Adobe's Coding Best Practices for ColdFusion Performance, with a few of my own personal favorites thrown in there.
This is the first in what I hope to be a continuing series of CFML 101 articles. My intent is to produce a blog series aimed at the beginning CFML developer, one which helps to explain basic techniques and concepts to those new to the CF world. The topics and examples covered in this series focus on the CFML programming language in general, not a specific application server. So whether you're using ColdFusion, Railo, or Blue Dragon (referred to as CF/R/BD from this point forward) to run your CFML applications, these concepts still apply.
