How to Use CFAbort to Halt Page Processing in CFML

In this tutorial, you'll discover the full functionality of the cfabort tag in CFML. This tag is commonly used to halt page processing at the tag's location when certain conditions occur with the conditional logic.

The Syntax

The tag comes equipped with two optional parameters:

• showError - The error message to display when page processing has aborted. This message will display using the standard CFML error page.
• type - Defines the abort type. request aborts the request in its entirety, and is the default value. page aborts the current page execution.

<cfabort [showError=string [type=string]]>

Code Examples

Let's walk through a few code examples to illustrate how this tag works.

Abort with no parameters

First, we'll create two strings, Foo and Bar. The cfabort tag will be placed between the two words, stopping page execution halfway through and displaying only "Foo" on the screen:

Foo
<cfabort>
Bar

Abort and throw an error

Another example is to abort page processing and display a custom error message on the screen:

Foo
<cfabort showError="An error has occurred.">
Bar

Abort in a loop

In this example, we'll abort page processing halfway through a loop:

<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="5">
	<cfif i eq 4>
		Aborted.
		<cfabort>
	</cfif>
	
	<cfoutput>#i#</cfoutput>
</cfloop>

The resulting output for this example is:

1 2 3 Aborted.

Abort when an error occurs

And, in this example, we'll abort after deliberately calling a non-existing function. An error will be thrown and page processing will stop immediately:

<cftry>
	<cfset variables.id = getUserID()>
	
	<cfcatch type="any">
		<cfdump var="#cfcatch#">
		<cfabort>
	</cfcatch>
</cftry>

Script Syntax

A similar example in script syntax can be accomplished like this:

<cfscript>
	try {
		variables.id = getUserID();
		
		catch(any error) {
			writeDump(error);
			abort;
		}
	}
</cfscript>

Conclusion

As you can see, the tag is beneficial for halting page processing at any desirable point or when an error occurs.