title: retrieving float values using sqlite3_column_double
body: <p>I'm relatively new to iPhone programming so I apologize if this seems a simple question. I have latitude/location columns in my table (FLOAT type) that I am trying to retrieve from my SQLite database.</p>
  
  <p>I can retrieve my character/text based db columns, but don't know how to retrieve my float values. Should I be formatting the attributes using NSString or something else? I wish to use the float values further downstream with CLLocationDistance.</p>
  
  <pre><code>// the array of locations that we will create
  NSMutableArray *locations = [[[NSMutableArray alloc] init] autorelease];
  
  const char *sql = "SELECT locations.name, \
  locations.address, \
  locations.city, \
  locations.state, \
  locations.phone, \
  locations.zip, \
  locations.latitude, \
  locations.longitude \
  FROM locations \
  WHERE category = ?1";
  
  // the sqlite statement object that will hold our result set 
  sqlite3_stmt *statement;
  
  // prepare the statement to compile the SQL query into byte-code
  int sqlResult = sqlite3_prepare_v2(database, sql, -1, &amp;statement, NULL);
  
  // reset query before execution
  sqlite3_reset(statement);
  
  // set bind variable
  sqlite3_bind_text(statement, 1, [categoryParameter UTF8String], -1, SQLITE_TRANSIENT);
  
  if ( sqlResult== SQLITE_OK) {
      // step through the results - once for each row
      while (sqlite3_step(statement) == SQLITE_ROW) {
  
          // allocate a location object to add to the pharmacies array
          Location *location = [[Location alloc] init];
  
          // the second parameter is the column index (0 based) in
          // the result set
          char *name = (char *)sqlite3_column_text(statement, 0);
          char *address = (char *)sqlite3_column_text(statement, 1);
          char *city = (char *)sqlite3_column_text(statement, 2);
          char *state = (char *)sqlite3_column_text(statement, 3);
          char *phone = (char *)sqlite3_column_text(statement, 4);
          char *zipcode = (char *)sqlite3_column_text(statement, 5);
          float latitude = (float) sqlite3_column_double(statement, 6);
          float longitude = (float) sqlite3_column_double(statement, 7);
  
          // set all attributes of the location
          location.name = (name) ? [NSString stringWithUTF8String:name] : @"";
          location.address = (address) ? [NSString stringWithUTF8String:address] : @"";
          location.city = (city) ? [NSString stringWithUTF8String:city] : @"";
          location.state = (state) ? [NSString stringWithUTF8String:state] : @"";
          location.phone = (phone) ? [NSString stringWithUTF8String:phone] : @"";
          location.zipcode = (zipcode) ? [NSString stringWithUTF8String:zipcode] : @"";
  
          [locations addObject:location];
          [location release];
      }
  
      // finalize the statement to release its resources
      sqlite3_finalize(statement);
  </code></pre>