How to retrieve the 'Status' for 'ContributeID = 149' without using 'ID'?

Question

ID    ContributeID   Status

3         150         Pass
2         149         Fail
1         148         Pass

Above is the data in a SharePoint List.

How to retrieve the 'Status' for 'ContributeID = 149' without using 'ID'?

Answer 1

If you know the specific value of a specific field, using a CAML Query is much more direct than looping through all list items. You would end up with code along the lines of:

using (SPSite site = new SPSite(absoluteSiteUrl))
using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
{
    SPList list = web.Lists["List Name"];

    string queryString = "<Where><Eq>";
    queryString += "<FieldRef Name='ContributeID' />";
    queryString += "<Value Type='Number'>149</Value>"; // you could put any value you are looking for here
    queryString += "</Eq></Where>";

    SPQuery query = new SPQuery();
    query.Query = queryString;

    // getting items using a query will always return a collection object
    SPListItemCollection resultItems = list.GetItems(query);

    if (resultItems.Count > 0)
    {
        // if ContributeID is truly unique, there should be only one item in the collection
        SPListItem singleItem = resultItems[0];
        string status = singleItem["Status"].ToString();
    }
}

See also:

How to retrieve list items

SPList.GetItems(query) method

Answer 2

Get the site collection, then the web, then the list. Then, loop through each item in the list, checking ContributeID against the value you're looking for. There's a sample here: enter link description here

Look for the section starting with, "If you do not know either the GUID or the ID of the list item..."