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findByKey()

The findByKey() function retrieves a single record from the database using its primary key value and returns it as an object by default. If the record is not found, it returns false, making it easy to handle missing data gracefully. You can also control what columns are returned using the select argument, include related associations, or override the return format to a query, struct, or even raw SQL. Since it accepts the same options as other read functions like findOne(), you can apply caching, indexing, and even include soft-deleted records when needed.

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
key	any	Yes		Primary key value(s) of the record. Separate with comma if passing in multiple primary key values. Accepts a string, list, or a numeric value.
select	string	No		Determines how the `SELECT` clause for the query used to return data will look. You can pass in a list of the properties (which map to columns) that you want returned from your table(s). If you don't set this argument at all, Wheels will select all properties from your table(s). If you specify a table name (e.g. `users.email`) or alias a column (e.g. `fn AS firstName`) in the list, then the entire list will be passed through unchanged and used in the `SELECT` clause of the query. By default, all column names in tables joined via the `include` argument will be prepended with the singular version of the included table name.
include	string	No		Associations that should be included in the query using `INNER` or `LEFT OUTER` joins (which join type that is used depends on how the association has been set up in your model). If all included associations are set on the current model, you can specify them in a list (e.g. `department,addresses,emails`). You can build more complex include strings by using parentheses when the association is set on an included model, like `album(artist(genre))`, for example. These complex `include` strings only work when `returnAs` is set to `query` though.
handle	string	No	query	Handle to use for the query. This is used to set the name of the query in the debug output (which otherwise defaults to `userFindOneQuery` for example).
cache	any	No		If you want to cache the query, you can do so by specifying the number of minutes you want to cache the query for here. If you set it to `true`, the default cache time will be used (60 minutes).
reload	boolean	No	false	Set to `true` to force Wheels to query the database even though an identical query for this model may have been run in the same request. (The default in Wheels is to get the second query from the model's request-level cache.)
parameterize	any	No	true	Set to `true` to use `cfqueryparam` on all columns, or pass in a list of property names to use `cfqueryparam` on those only.
returnAs	string	No	object	Set to `objects` to return an array of objects, set to `structs` to return a struct of structs, set to `array` to return an array of structs, set to `query` to return a query result set, or set to 'sql' to return the executed SQL query as a string.
callbacks	boolean	No	true	Set to `false` to disable callbacks for this method.
includeSoftDeletes	boolean	No	false	Set to `true` to include soft-deleted records in the queries that this method runs.
dataSource	string	No	[runtime expression]	Override the default datasource

1. Getting the author with the primary key value `99` as an object
auth = model("author").findByKey(99);

2. Getting an author based on a form/URL value and then checking if it was found
auth = model("author").findByKey(params.key);
if(!isObject(auth)){
    flashInsert(message="Author #params.key# was not found");
    redirectTo(back=true);
}

3. If you have a `belongsTo` association setup from `comment` to `post`, you can do a scoped call. (The `post` method below will call `model("post").findByKey(comment.postId)` internally)
comment = model("comment").findByKey(params.commentId);
post = comment.post();