accessing database fields

From: Terry (cooleyt_at_woh.rr.com)
Date: 12/22/03 

Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 10:52:39 -0500

Using D6 and adodatasets and MSSQL 2000

Is there an advantage for one or the other.
A data field can be access with by using the FieldByName('fieldname')
parameter or actually creating an instance of the field using the fields
editor and referencing it using the adodatasetnamefieldname object. Is one
way better than the other?

In addition, if for example, I want to use the display format and the edit
mask of a database field, I do create and instance of the field, so that I
can set those properties. In the case where I do this, would it be better
just to define the data field in question, or define all the fields for that
particular table?