CFSET Invoking Function without variable

Question

New pretty new with this language, started code with it this week.

So my problem is the new company that I started with uses CF11 and they mainly only code with tags. I want to know if is possible to call cfset without a variable declaration.

If not what is the better way to call functions (that don't have return) with tags?

<cfset myFunction()>

I usually call my initiate functions at cfset, but they all have returning.

<cfset something = #initSomething()#>

Answer 1

Yes, invoking a function without capturing the result is perfectly fine. Sadly, there used to be a lot of that syntax in older CF documentation. It gave the erroneous impression you MUST capture the result of a function (and use extra pound signs everywhere). Neither is true. Even if a function does return something, you're not required to capture the result. Only if you wish to use it for something later. You're always free to invoke a function and completely ignore the result. So both of these are valid:

<!--- 1. capture result ---> 
<cfset result = getTimeNow()>
<!--- 2. ignore result ---> 
<cfset getTimeNow()>

<!--- sample function --->
<cffunction name="getTimeNow" return="date">
    <cfreturn now()>
</cffunction>

Technically, there's nothing stopping you from capturing the result of a function that doesn't return anything. However, the "result" variable will be undefined, so it really serves no purpose.

 <cfset result = doNothing()>
 <!--- this will error --->
 <cfoutput>#result#</cfoutput>

 <!--- sample function --->
 <cffunction name="doNothing" return="void">
    <!--- function that returns nothing --->
 </cffunction>