code: def getvarcol(self, columnname, startrow=0, nrow=-1, rowincr=1):
          
          return self._getvarcol(columnname, startrow, nrow, rowincr)
docs: Get the contents of a column or part of it.
  
          It is similar to :func:`getcol`, but the result is returned as a
          dict of numpy arrays.
          It can deal with a column containing variable shaped arrays.