The only ways would be to iterate over the container/table or to recreate the Container.
Iteration:
for(Iterator i = container.getItemIds().iterator();i.hasnext();){
Item item = container.getItem(i.next);
if(item.getItemProperty("TEXT").getValue.equals("text"))
//Do something
}
Maybe you also could manually create a connection + statment and execute a query giving you the wanted resultset. Iterating over a resultset is quicker then iterating over a container or table.