diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 86202cae0be7e7080dbc7b57415a67d38f1e5b54..6976a0253607eb48ae73f53e9ca662e8e72055df 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -247,6 +247,8 @@ CVS code -
 	  the text of the spell-checked file into its own function,
 	  replace_buffer(). (DLR)
 - utils.c:
+  parse_line_column()
+	- Simplify parsing of the column number. (DLR)
   ngetdelim()
 	- Do sanity checks in an assert instead of checking them
 	  manually and returning -1 if they fail. (DLR)
diff --git a/src/utils.c b/src/utils.c
index 1f5813d78ed9e8e6a6e93cd8749c3bb3f19fd797..043371290df20021892c0c49bdf8dad35687c783 100644
--- a/src/utils.c
+++ b/src/utils.c
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ bool parse_line_column(const char *str, ssize_t *line, ssize_t *column)
     comma = strchr(str, ',');
 
     if (comma != NULL && column != NULL) {
-	if (!parse_num(str + (comma - str + 1), column))
+	if (!parse_num(comma + 1, column))
 	    retval = FALSE;
     }