You may not know this - but you can set array elements out of order...

<cfset a = arrayNew(1)>
<cfset a[1] = "foo">
<cfset a[3] = "foo">

This will create an array that has items at positions 1 and 3. However, if you try to loop over it using cfloop - you will get an error when you try to use item 2. You may think that isDefined() would work - but it does not. There is no one function that will determine if an array item exists. The only real solution is to use try/catch when you use the item. An MX only UDF for this can be found here:

http://cflib.org/udf.cfm?ID=632

However - one should not use the position of an array to signify something. If the position is important, consider reworking your data to be a structure. With structures, you can easily check for the existence of an item by using structKeyExists().