1. If Object = Nothing Then 'Object is null
2. DataSets don't have rows. DataTables do. Either way, the current row you're looking is the current row you're looking at. If you're trying to determine the row number add a counter to your row enumeration.
3. If the value is constant store it in the application's web.config file. If it is variable, use a shared method of a class, imported to each page, to add, change and delete values to a database, session object or cookie.