Whoops! Just saw that last part about spaces. How about this:

ltype=''
lcolumncounter=1
For lcntr=1 to len(col7)

ltype=ltype+substR(col7,lcntr,1)

if inlist(alltrim(ltype), ...valid types, or seek in a table)
lcolumncounter=lcolumncouner+1
lcolumn='col'+alltrim(Str(lcolumncounter))
lvalue=eval(lcolumn)

****Store values somewhere
ltype=''
endif

endfor