Final answer:
A collection of related characters forming an attribute like a customer number or name in a database is called a field. A field is a specific data structure that holds one type of data, such as a unique identifier or text.
Step-by-step explanation:
A collection of related characters that comprise an attribute such as a customer number or name is known as a field. In databases, a field is a data structure for a single piece of data. For instance, within a customer database, the customer number field uniquely identifies each customer, while the name field holds the customer's name. Each field is designed to hold specific types of data, such as numbers, dates, or strings of text.