SELECT(ing) One DB Column Value Into A String In C#... How?

hey everyone, everyone here has been extremely helpful, I'm extremely appreciative. i have another question if anyone has the time.
I want to pull the value of one column/row into a string, i know this value to be one int or 1 word under 10 characters. I'd like to be able to use this variable as a conditional, so my if/else statements have information to work off of. I have been using the following format in by code-behind pages to do my SQL insert/update/delete - however I cannot figure out how to SELECT and get those results into a string. I'm new obviously, so dumbed-down explanation would be greatly appreciated!
This is what I've used so far for working with my DB:
using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

    protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        SqlDataSource profilesinsert = new SqlDataSource();
        profilesinsert.ConnectionString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["ProfilesConnectionString1"].ToString();
        profilesinsert.InsertCommandType = SqlDataSourceCommandType.Text;
        profilesinsert.InsertCommand = "INSERT INTO ProfileComments  (Approved) VALUES (@Approved)";
        profilesinsert.InsertParameters.Add("Approved", "yes");
        profilesinsert.Insert();
    }
 The SELECT into a string I'd like to do on page_load, so that I can test that variable upon button click, and have a different value in "Approved" depending on the 1 int or small word result from my SELECT.
THANK YOU very much to anyone who offers help! love you guys :)