Column
The concept of column has two meanings. In this context, it refers to a
vertical area in a file one character wide. In other contexts, such
as a spreadsheet, column refers to a vertical area in a file consisting
of one or more grouped characters.
In the first context, the string 1,234 spans
five columns, one for each digit and the comma. But in the second
context, this string generally forms a collection of characters and
resides in a single column.
This document uses the term column in both ways; hopefully the meaning will
be clear from the context.