---
title: prototype
framework: tabulardata
role: symbol
role_heading: Instance Property
path: tabulardata/column/prototype
---

# prototype

A prototype that creates type-erased columns with the same underlying type as the column slice.

## Declaration

```swift
var prototype: any AnyColumnPrototype { get }
```

## Discussion

Discussion Use a type-erased column prototype to create new columns of the same type as the slice’s parent column without explicitly knowing what type it is.