Why can I reference RecordCount on a query embedded in an object but I can't loop over it?

Question

I have a model, surveyTemplate, that has all but one of it's properties populated by a query.

I am storing an additional query in the last property of the model which is called, surveyTemplateQuestions.

If I do the following:

writeDump(var="#surveyTemplateObj#"); abort;

I get the model correctly populated with the last property containing the query data.

I can also do this:

writeDump(var="#surveyTemplateObj.getSurveyTemplateQuestions()#"); abort;

And now I get just the query stored in the last property of the model.

So, why can I not do this:

<cfoutput query="prc.surveyTemplateObj.getSurveyTemplateQuestions()">

When doing the above I get the following error:

The value of the attribute query, which is currently prc.surveyTemplateObj.getSurveyTemplateQuestions(), is invalid.

But then I can do this instead:

<cfloop from="1" to="#prc.surveyTemplateObj.getSurveyTemplateQuestions().RecordCount#" index="i">

How can it be that when I do a cfdump of the object's last property it shows as a query, I can do a RecordCount on the query object, but I cannot loop over the query object via cfoutput?

Answer 1

This:

prc.surveyTemplateObj.getSurveyTemplateQuestions()

is a function result. If you want to loop through it, assign it to a variable first:

myVariable = prc.surveyTemplateObj.getSurveyTemplateQuestions();

<cfoutput query = "myVariable">
etc