Dave,
The column IS an integer but we are looking for the variable to be the "column name" and then we check to see if it holds a value of 1.
Basically we have 20 or so columns that are Positions, and people are ranking their choices by entering an number with 1 being their top choice. Our page allow the user to select a column name from a JumpMenu and then we poll the DB to return all matching records that have 1 in that column,