ion ( oSettings, iColumn, bUnique, bFiltered, bIgnoreEmpty ) {
				// check that we have a column id
				if ( typeof iColumn == "undefined" ) return new Array();
				
				// by default we only want unique data
				if ( typeof bUnique == "undefined" ) bUnique = true;
				
				// by default we do want to only look at filtered data
				if ( typeof bFiltered == "undefined" ) bFiltered = true;
				
				// by default we do not want to include empty values
				if ( typeof bIgnoreEmpty == "undefined" ) bIgnoreEmpty