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Software Engineering vocabulary · Databases and Persistence

Column

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/ˈkɑːləm/nounCore term

In software engineering, column means: A vertical part of a table with a name and a data type, holding one kind of information for every row, such as email or created_at.

In Turkish: sütun, kolon, alan

How it is used

You add, rename, drop and index columns, and you choose which columns a query returns. Common phrases: 'nullable column', 'computed column', 'column name', 'SELECT only the columns you need'. Some tools and older texts call a column a field.

Example sentences

  1. We need to add a phone_number column to the customers table.

  2. Avoid SELECT * and list only the columns the screen actually uses.

Common collocations

  • add a column
  • drop a column
  • column name
  • nullable column
  • rename a column
  • tableA structure in a relational database that stores data about one kind of thing in rows and columns, for example all customers or all orders.
  • data typeThe kind of value a column can hold, such as whole numbers, text, dates or true/false values. It controls what can be stored and how much space it takes.
  • ALTER TABLEThe SQL statement that changes the structure of an existing table, for example to add, rename or drop a column or to add a constraint.
  • NULLA special marker meaning that a value is missing or unknown. It is not the same as zero or an empty string.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Databases and Persistence

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