checkboxes damnit

I have 4 checkboxes that hold values of X and each goes to a different column in a database. If the user doesnt check one of the values I keep getting the error:

Element COSTCAT is undefined in FORM

basically costcat is a checkbox and if it isnt checked it will give me this error. I tried using like a
cfif #form.costcat# eq ""
cfset costcat = "none"

and in my insert i name the value #costcat#. It still gives me the same error though. I have like 8 text boxes on the form that the user doesnt have to check but I dont think I should be getting these errors...any way to get around this?

This isn't really a CF problem, it's a limitation of HTML forms. Unchecked check boxes are not sent in the form post, regardless of web server or app server.

What you really want to do is

<cfif not structKeyExists( 'form', 'myCheckbox' )>
....they didn't check the box....
</cfif>

or you could do

<cfparam name="form.myCheckbox" default="none" />

at the top of the page, and then if the checkbox isn't there it will be created with a default of an "none".

Kiteless...you my friend are living genius. Hah. I really appreciate it and now have a better understanding of cfparm. Shoot I have learned a lot of this stuff with your help i appreciate it.

Works fine

No problem. cfparam is very useful. And you don't have to use it to always set a default, if you do:

<cfparam name="form.myFormField" />

Then this will throw an error if that variable doesn't exist. Handy for when you're asserting that a variable must exist for the rest of the code to process. You can also assert that a variable is of a specific type (string, number, structure, query, etc.).