An example will be most specific: func[list_, column_] := list[[All, column]] = Map[#*2 &, list[[All, column]]]; This throws errors. I want to avoid doing something like this: func2[list_] := Map[#*2 &; list]; list[[All, 2]] = func2[list[[All,2]]] because nesting a couple of functions raises complexity unnecessarily, the output would have to be reassigned every time. Thanks in advance