Final answer:
A collection of related characters that represent a customer number or name is known as a field. It is a specific piece of data within a database that characterizes a record.
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 the context of databases and data management systems, a field is a single piece of data, which represents a characteristic of a record, like a customer's name or their identification number.
For example, in a database table that stores customer information, each customer's record might contain several fields: customer number, customer name, address, phone number, etc. Each field is designed to hold a specific type of data pertaining to that attribute.