LCField class overview

The LCField class represents a data object containing one or more data values of a designated data type. Most of the methods in the LCField class have an "index" argument, specifying which of the potentially multiple values in the field to operate on. Index values start at 1.

In repetitive operations such as data fetch -- insert loops, it is more efficient to get a reference field from a fieldlist prior to the loop, and act on the data through the reference than to locate the data field in each iteration of the loop. See the "Performance" section in Chapter 1 for an example.

In addition, an LCField can contain an LCFieldlist as its value. Since an LCFieldlist contains LCFields, this lets you nest a fieldlist inside another fieldlist. This lets you use LCFields and LCFieldlists together as a means of maintaining structured data in memory. However, there is no way to employ these complex structures to read or write data in a single operation.