The ULTable object provides a set of methods for retrieving column values. These methods take the column name or ID as the argument.

The following example demonstrates two ways to get an age value out of an open table, assuming that age is the first column of the table:

ul_s_long age1 = tbl->GetInt( 1 );
ul_s_long age2 = tbl->GetInt( "age" );
assert( age1 == age2 );

Using the column ID version of value retrieval has performance benefits when values are retrieved in a loop.

In addition to the methods for retrieving values, there are methods for setting values. These methods take the column name or ID and the value as arguments.

For example demonstrates two ways to set a string value for a row with string columns of lname and fname, assuming that lname is the first column in the table.

tbl->SetString( 1, last_name );
tbl->SetString( "fname", first_name );

By setting column values, you do not directly alter the data in the database. You can assign values to the columns, even if you are before the first row or after the last row of the table. Do not attempt to access data when the current row is undefined. For example, attempting to fetch the column value in the following example is incorrect:

// This code is incorrect
tbl->BeforeFirst();
tbl = tbl.GetInt( cust_id );

The method you choose should match the data type you want to assign. UltraLite automatically casts database data types where they are compatible, so that you can use the GetString method to fetch an integer value into a string variable, and so on. See Converting data types explicitly.