The GlideElement class is not generally instantiated on its own, but it is used for elements in a GlideRecord object, and provides methods for interacting with them. An element generally refers to a data column in the record, such as the number field on a task record, or the sys_updated_on field of a record. You can access a GlideElement from a server-side GlideRecord object (for example, by using gr.number), or by using the getElement method of a GlideRecord object.

Best practice dictates that you always use the getter and setter functions: getValue(), and setValue() if you want to get or set the value of the field. Directly accessing the server-side GlideElement property, however, will give you a reference to the GlideElement object.

Let's say for example, that we have a table with a column called short_description. When we query this table, we get a GlideRecord object populated with various properties. Each field in the table becomes a property in the GlideRecord object, but...