I saw some recent posts where I thought the terms “field” and “column” were being misused. I work with data a lot, and have my opinions. I’m wondering if those opinions are correct.

***** Rows seem clear – I don’t think there is any controversy about what a row is, either for database or text file.

***** Flat file columns seem clear – For a flat file such as the following, I don’t think there is any controversy about what a column is. Column in file shown is like “cut -c 1”. Several columns may combine to make a field, so “cut -c 1-11” cuts the field in columns 1-11 (record ID here), such as 09011101001, 09011101002, etc.

****** CSV and TSV “columns” seem misused to me – Here is similar data, in TSV format. I would call say “data in field 8” instead of “data in column 8”. I think I’m supported by the cut command and it’s use of “cut -f 8 -d,” (–fields) for parsing this kind of data. To me, “column 8” means “cut -c 8”. By the time we get out to “field 8”, it doesn’t line up vertically anymore, so I doesn’t even look like a column. But it seems many, or perhaps most, say “data in column 8”. But many of those can barely string together a sentence. 😡 So I thought I would ask the experts. Is it more correct to say “column 8” or “field 8” for what “cut -f 8 -d,” retrieves in example below? :rolleyes: