Table cells: column Name, column Number, and column Index - how to convert?

[Lupp]

This isn’t actually a question, but a hook for an answer I posted to a very differently worded question.
The answer explains a few fundamental facts, and supplies user code (Basic macros) to convert column identification from the alphabetical representation to the numeric representation and reversely.

Interested users may find a suitable answer easier based on key words in this hook-question’s title.

[Lupp]

You find my answer already mentioned in the question’s text here:

How to EASILY create an alpha sort list reflecting column IDs

Hi there, The alpha column headers in calc are created internally and automatically compensate for insertion or deletion of columns so there must be some mechanism by which LO itself correlates the column number to the alpha column ID. It appears to be impossible to generate these ALPHA IDs based upon current cursor location. Column() simply returns the numeric ID from 1 to 1024. Dragging an Alpha cell simply repeats the alpha character (or sequence). It would be possible to create a Vlookup ta…

The internal (technical) representation of columns by numbers prefers 0-based indices over the 1-based numbers you get in the user interface. That’s the reason for what I listed both words.