coldfusion ignore undefined variables

Question

if I use

<cfoutput>#somevariable#</cfoutput>

and somevariable is not defined I get an error, how can I prevent the error from occourring? is there a simple way of implementing a conditional that doesn't require a bunch of extra lines?

Answer 1

<cfparam name="somevariable" default="" />

If you're on cf 9 you can use a ternary operation, but cfparam is more 'best practicey'.

#isDefined("somevariable") ? somevariable : 'default string'#