The IliValue class supports polymorphism for the most primitive data types, such as character strings, integers, and float values. An IliValue object can hold a value belonging to any of these primitive types. Moreover, the type of a value can be changed dynamically. This class works in conjunction with the IliDatatype class, which is used to represent the dynamic type of an IliValue object.

The IliValue class is essential to Data Access. It enables values to be handled in a completely transparent way, so that table objects and data-source-aware gadgets can deal with values without having to take into account their type.

Each of the data-source-aware gadgets has an f_getValue member function that returns the gadget value in the form of an IliValue object.