Database “Column” and “Field”
Illustrations
What exactly is a “column” ?
A column is the collection of all
of a specified field in a recordset,
whether it is a table or a query.
As shown here, the “FirstName” field
forms a column,
and the “PayRate” field forms another
column :
(EmployeeID, LastName
and Hours are also
“columns” of fields.)
For example, on the first record,
or row, the “FirstName” field contains “John”
and on the second record, or row,
the “FirstName” field contains “Bill”
but the “FirstName” column contains all
of the first names on all rows.
In other words, “John” and “Bill”
and “Axel” make a “column” of first names
and “Smith” and “Bailey” and “Rose” make a “column”
of last names.
A “column”
can be almost synonymous with a “field,”
except that a column is the
collection of ALL of that field on all rows
and contains many values (one on each row),
while a single field can contain only one value per record.
Note :
This table is a simplified version of an employees table;
it does not show address, phone, etc., that might normally be included.
The “Hours” column is the total,
cumulative hours that each employee worked;
the hours worked each week might be in another “TimeCard”
table.