i tried

structKeyExists(form, 'search.value')

but its no all time

you can try dumping

form

and seeing what it shows up as. It's not clear to me what you're expecting the key to be. if the key is

search[value]

then searching for

search.value

shouldn't work. But

structKeyExists(form, "search[value]")

might...

search[value]

is not the same as

search.value

. The former indicates the name of the element is stored in a variable called

value

and the latter indicates the name of the element is

value

. This is pretty fundamental knowledge for you to know, so... best go read some docs: https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/coldfusion/developing-applications/the-cfml-programming-language/using-arrays-and-structures/about-structures.html As per usual, if you show us what the data is (ie: a cfdump), then that will clarify things. I mean even you looking at the dump of the data will probably enable you to answer yer own question?

i do not have dump, i have data in the request as

It would take minimal effort on your part to do

<cfdump var="#form#">

and then you would clearly see how CF handles form fields named that way.