Editors like n++ have column editing, but Sublime takes it to a different level. It's most generalized, it's multi-cursor.

You can for example put your cursor on a word, spam ctrl+d (of press alt+f3) to select all instances of that word, and start editing them all at ones, no matter where they are. They don't have to be perfectly in a column. You can also copy X items from anywhere, and if you have X cursors again somewhere else and paste, they'll each go in their respective slot.

multi-selection; multiple cursors, arbitrary (non-contiguous) columns, arbitrary rows.