>Once I have a datarow as a variable, if I wish to verify if a specific field exists in it, is the only way to Try/Catch for an error? I tried If Not loRow(lcField) Is Nothing but this generates an error if the field is not present in the row.

Can you do a verification from the SQL instead?

E.g.

if exists (select 1 from Information_Schema.Columns where Table_Name = @Table and Column_Name = @Column)
   -- column exists in the table