CFFILE and leading zeros from SQL variables

It's happening because Excel is parsing the data as a number - not text. I'm guessing you're outputting CSV or XML, correct? I don't think there's any way to address that using this method because there's no way to tell Excel how to properly format the data.

You could try generating your Excel document using Apache POI (http://poi.apache.org/), which generates a "real" Excel document and lets you specify the cell types. Just drop the JARs into your CF class path (c:\coldfusion x\wwwroot\web-inf\lib).

Here's an example...

<cfset filename="report.xls">
<cfset out = createObject("java", "java.io.FileOutputStream").init(#filename#)>

<cfset wb = createObject("java", "org.apache.poi.hssf.usermodel.HSSFWorkbook")>
<cfset s = wb.createSheet("Test Report")>

<!--- create right-aligned column style --->
<cfset alignRightStyle = wb.createCellStyle()>
<cfset alignRightStyle.setAlignment(alignRightStyle.ALIGN_RIGHT)>

<!--- create header style--->
<cfset headerStyle = wb.createCellStyle()>
<cfset headerStyleFont = wb.createFont()>
<cfset headerStyleFont.setBoldWeight(headerStyleFont.BOLDWEIGHT_BOLD)>
<cfset headerStyle.setFont(headerStyleFont)>

<!--- create header-right style--->
<cfset headerRightStyle = wb.createCellStyle()>
<cfset headerRightStyleFont = wb.createFont()>
<cfset headerRightStyleFont.setBoldWeight(headerStyleFont.BOLDWEIGHT_BOLD)>
<cfset headerRightStyle.setFont(headerStyleFont)>
<cfset headerRightStyle.setAlignment(alignRightStyle.ALIGN_RIGHT)>

<cfset i = 0>

<cfset r = s.createRow(i)>
<cfset c = r.createCell(0)>
<cfset c.setCellValue('Header 1')>
<cfset c.setCellStyle(headerStyle)>
<cfset c.setCellType(c.CELL_TYPE_STRING)>

<cfset c = r.createCell(1)>
<cfset c.setCellValue('Header 2')>
<cfset c.setCellStyle(headerStyle)>
<cfset c.setCellType(c.CELL_TYPE_STRING)>

<cfset c = r.createCell(2)>
<cfset c.setCellValue('Header 3')>
<cfset c.setCellStyle(headerRightStyle)>
<cfset c.setCellType(c.CELL_TYPE_STRING)>

<!--- create ten rows --->
<cfloop from="1" to="10" index="i">
	<cfset r = s.createRow(i)>
	<cfset c = r.createCell(0)>
	<cfset c.setCellValue('value 1')>
	<cfset c.setCellType(c.CELL_TYPE_STRING)>
	
	<!--- blank cells --->
	<cfset c = r.createCell(1)>
	<cfset c.setCellValue('')>	
	<cfset c.setCellType(c.CELL_TYPE_STRING)>
	
	<cfset c = r.createCell(2)>
	<cfset c.setCellValue('value 3')>
	<cfset c.setCellStyle(alignRightStyle)>
	<cfset c.setCellType(c.CELL_TYPE_STRING)>
</cfloop>
		
<cfset s.createFreezePane(1, 1)>
<cfset s.setColumnWidth(0, 5000)>
<cfset s.setColumnWidth(1, 5000)>
<cfset s.setColumnWidth(2, 5000)>

<!--- print settings --->
<cfset wb.removePrintArea(0)>	
<cfset wb.setPrintArea(0,"$A$1:$C$#i#")>

<cfset h = s.getHeader()>
<cfset h.setLeft("Report")>
	
<cfset s.setAutobreaks(true)>
<cfset s.setPrintGridlines(true)>

<cfset ps = s.getPrintSetup()>
<cfset ps.setLandscape(true)>
<cfset ps.setFitWidth(1)>
<cfset ps.setFitHeight(0)>

<!--- output the sheet --->
<cfset wb.write(out)>
<cfset getPageContext().getResponse().setContentType('application/vnd.ms-excel')>
<cfset getPageContext().getResponse().setHeader('Content-Disposition', 'filename=#filename#')>
<cfcontent reset="true" file="#filename#" deletefile="false">

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If you're on ColdFusion 9 there is also a <CFSPREADHEET> tag available, but I haven't used it...
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/9.0/CFMLRef/WSc3ff6d0ea77859461172e0811cbec17cba-7f87.html

If you're writing the excel file using table tag, you can include this style...

<td style='mso-number-format:000000'>#yourVal#</td>

Thanks for the responses. I'd love to do it simply through the td style. That said, it's not just numeric. It can be alphanumeric... but when there are leading zeros it loses them. But that style didn't appear to work even on the numeric. Thoughts?

No, I'm not on CF9. I wish I were.

I'm under some time constraints or I would look into Apache POI. As it is, they may have to do w/o their leading zeros.

Try a slight variation of gd's suggestion. The "@" symbol should force the value to be treated as text

      <td style='mso-number-format:"\@";'>012345</td>

You could try generating your Excel document using Apache POI ... Just drop the JARs into your CF class path (c:\coldfusion x\wwwroot\web-inf\lib).

Fyi, CF7+ already include older versions of POI. You don't need to anything extra to do basic xls files. Only if you need newer features.  Bear in mind multiple versions do not always co-exist well. You may have to use the javaLoader.cfc instead or possibly replace the old version.

Coldfusion cffile doesn't like this at all: <td style='mso-number-format:"\@";'>012345</td>

I have tried double-quoting it and it's still breaking.

I wouldn't try writing complex html directly, because you'll almost always run into problems with nested quotes. Try using cfsavecontent instead.   Be sure to wrap it in <cfoutput> tags if the content contains #variables#

ie   <cfsavecontent variable="dataToWrite">
              <td style='mso-number-format:"\@";'>012345</td>
              ....
      </cfsavecontent>
      <cffile action="write" output="#dataToWrite#" ...>

That's assuming you actually need to write it to disk ie it's not for an on-the-fly download.

send single quote before your output... this will not change your output, but excel take it as string/text instead of number..

e.g.
'01234

I guess this should be your last solution if above all will not work.. :)

Any luck?