Column
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
A column is a category of data in a table. If a table is a spreadsheet, columns are the headers: 'Name', 'Email', 'Age'. Every row in the table has a value (or empty slot) for each column.
Real Talk
A column (also called a field or attribute) is a vertical component of a table that defines a specific data attribute. Each column has a name, a data type (VARCHAR, INTEGER, BOOLEAN, etc.), and optional constraints (NOT NULL, UNIQUE, DEFAULT).
When You'll Hear This
"Add a 'phone_number' column to the users table." / "That column stores the timestamp of when the record was created."
Related Terms
Field
A field is the intersection of a row and a column — the actual single value stored there. If the 'email' column for user #5 says 'alex@example.
Row
A row is one single record in a table. If your users table has 500 users, it has 500 rows.
Schema
A database schema is the blueprint of your database — which tables exist, what columns they have, what types they are, and how they relate to each other.
Table
A database table is exactly like a spreadsheet tab. It has columns across the top (name, email, age) and rows going down (one per person).