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For instance, in the following sentence:
Is it possible to reset columns' width to default in the message pane?
Can I forget the apostrophe, using "columns width"?
I don't see the possessive/apostrophe being used often all over the Internet.
Is it acceptable? What's the status?
There are a few limited cases for which an apostrophe is not used to indicate possession. For example, if you're referring to something belonging to it or her, the correct form is its or hers, with no apostrophe.
Such an exception does not apply to column. If you want to refer to the width of a particular column, you would say the column's width. In the plural case, to refer to the width of specific multiple columns, the apostrophe goes after the "s", so the columns' width would be correct.
However, if you're referring to the width in a general sense, rather than to specific a specific column or columns, then column width would be correct.
Your example quote is incorrect without a modifier such as "the", so it should be:
Is it possible to reset the columns' width to default in the message pane?
... but note that this refers to specific columns that need to be previously introduced in the context. Otherwise, for a general context applying to all columns it should be:
Is it possible to reset column width to default in the message pane?
' has a specific meaning, and cannot be used as part of a variable name. So the s at the end of a word should really only be used for pluralization. Thus I'd expect a variable named "columnsWidth" to describe the combined width of multiple columns. To the answer above, I'd add that the only exceptions to the apostrophe rule for possessives are specifically pronouns.
Dec 22, 2015 at 20:22
If you want the possessive form, the apostrophe cannot be omitted. But in the specific case of columns' width, we may just write column width, which is a noun phrase with width modified by column.
For "correct" grammar, you need the apostrophe. Sometimes people forget, don't know, or don't care, which is probably why you'll see (or rather, not see) a lot of missing apostrophes on the net.
Well, it's not always true, a word can be possessive without using an apostrophe.
There was an alien in the UFO. We found its remnants at the crash site.
No, an apostrophe is never dispensable for indicating that a noun is being used in the possessive case. You may sometimes see a noun being used as an adjective (the example of column width, above), but that it not an example of a possessive (column's width). The need for an apostrophe to signify the possessive is (with the exception of pronouns) one of the few rules of English spelling that has no exception.
columnbecomes an adjective. No need for possessive, just usecolumn widths. Howevercolumns' widthswould also be fine for plural possessive, we just don't use it much in tech.