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Home > Products > Excel > Excel 2003 Help and How-to > Working with Data > Function Reference > Lookup Functions

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COLUMN

Applies to: Microsoft Office Excel 2003

Returns the column number of the given reference.

Syntax

COLUMN(reference)

Reference is the cell or range of cells for which you want the column number.

If reference is omitted, it is assumed to be the reference of the cell in which the COLUMN function appears.
If reference is a range of cells, and if COLUMN is entered as a horizontal array (array: Used to build single formulas that produce multiple results or that operate on a group of arguments that are arranged in rows and columns. An array range shares a common formula; an array constant is a group of constants used as an argument.), COLUMN returns the column numbers of reference as a horizontal array.
Reference cannot refer to multiple areas.

Example

The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet.

Show How to copy an example

Create a blank workbook or worksheet.
Select the example in the Help topic.
Note Do not select the row or column headers.

Selecting an example from Help
Press CTRL+C.
In the worksheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V.
To switch between viewing the results and viewing the formulas that return the results, press CTRL+` (grave accent), or on the Tools menu, point to Formula Auditing, and then click Formula Auditing Mode.

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A	B
Formula	Description (Result)
=COLUMN()	Column in which the formula appears (1)
=COLUMN(A10)	Column of the reference (1)