Is there a "skip"/"do not print" column type?

Question

Every so often I prepare a table and later decide to remove one column. Editing the data is annoying because it is sorted by rows, and also because I sometimes find that the result of removing the columns is worse and have to go back and un-do it.

Is there a column type "skip" or "null" or "do not print" - something which can silently passes over the column data without printing it? This would make it much easier to try removing a column and see how it looks.

Answer 1

This obviously can't remove rules between columns.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{collcell}
\makeatletter
\newcolumntype{n}{>{\collectcell\@gobble}c<{\endcollectcell\hskip-2\tabcolsep}}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{|cnc|}
  a & b & c \\
\end{tabular}

\begin{tabular}{|cc|}
  a & c \\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}