Query builder , how to return something else than a string?

Hey guys I’m rather new at yii and php ( and databases while we’re at it).

Anyway, here’s my query


foreach ($key as $id => $number) {

				if ($id == 'year') {

					$currentYear = $number;

				} elseif ($id == 'subsection') {

					$tutOrLab = Yii::app()->db->createCommand()

						->select('courseID,kind,days,start_time,end_time,semester')

						->from($id)

						->where('id=' . $number)

						->queryRow();

				} else

					$lec = Yii::app()->db->createCommand()

						->select('courseID,kind,days,start_time,end_time,semester')

						->from($id)

						->where('id=' . $number)

						->queryRow();

However, this selects multiple columns and creates a problem for me later when I want to do some comparison. I want to compare (for instance) if I want to compare start_time I have to do it as a string which creates huge issues after that. I read the “abstract data type” part here: http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/1.1/en/database.query-builder but I don’t fully understand it. Any ideas on how i would need to do so?