I didn't quite follow the bit about assigning to strings, but here's an
example that demonstrates walking the Fields collection of a recordset.
Perhaps you can adapt it to your needs.

Public Sub LoopFields()

   'Using DAO

   Dim db As DAO.Database
   Dim rstD As DAO.Recordset
   Dim fldD As DAO.Field

   Set db = CurrentDb
   Set rstD = db.OpenRecordset("tblTest")
   For Each fldD In rstD.Fields
       Debug.Print fldD.Name,
   Next fldD
   Debug.Print
   Do Until rstD.EOF
       For Each fldD In rstD.Fields
           Debug.Print fldD.Value,
       Next fldD
       Debug.Print
       rstD.MoveNext
   Loop
   rstD.Close
   Debug.Print

   'Using ADO

   Dim rstA As ADODB.Recordset
   Dim fldA As ADODB.Field

   Set rstA = New ADODB.Recordset
   rstA.Open "tblTest", CurrentProject.Connection
   For Each fldA In rstA.Fields
       Debug.Print fldA.Name,
   Next fldA
   Debug.Print
   Do Until rstA.EOF
       For Each fldA In rstA.Fields
           Debug.Print fldA.Value,
       Next fldA
       Debug.Print
       rstA.MoveNext
   Loop
   rstA.Close

End Sub

Charlie,

In addition to Brendan's information, you can also access the recordset's
Fields collection. For example, the following code prints out (in the
Immediate window), the name and value of every field in every row of the
Customers table, using the recordset's Fields collection.

   Dim db As Database
   Dim rs As DAO.Recordset
   Dim iCount As Integer

   Set db = CurrentDb

   Set rs = db.OpenRecordset("Customers")
   Do While Not rs.EOF
       For iCount = 0 To rs.Fields.Count - 1
           Debug.Print rs.Fields(iCount).Name & vbTab &
rs.Fields(iCount).Value
       Next iCount

       rs.MoveNext
   Loop

   rs.Close
   Set rs = Nothing
   Set db = Nothing

Regards,
Graham R Seach
Microsoft Access MVP
Sydney, Australia