Mapping data flow : how to access individual items returned by columns()

Question

In Mapping data flow we have the expression function columns() which returns the content of the current row. The data type returned is Any.
The only way to access each item, that I could find, is to convert the result to an array first and use [index]. However, when we have different data types, I need to convert the result to string first, then to an array.

So I use something like this:
Array(toString(columns()))[index]

I am just wondering if there is a simpler way to access each item without doing the conversions ? Maybe some syntax I missed...