Editing Delimiter (section)

== Overview ==
Delimiters may be characterized as field and record delimiters, or as bracket delimiters.

===Field and record delimiters===
Field delimiters separate data fields. Record delimiters separate groups of fields.<ref name="FldDelm">{{cite book | last = de Moor | first = Georges J. | title = Progress in Standardization in Health Care Informatics | publisher =IOS Press | year = 1993 | isbn =90-5199-114-2}} p. 141</ref>

For example, the [[Comma-separated values|CSV format]] uses a comma as the delimiter between [[Field (computer science)|fields]], and an [[end-of-line]] indicator as the delimiter between [[Row (database)|records]]:
<pre>
fname,lname,age,salary
nancy,davolio,33,$30000
erin,borakova,28,$25250
tony,raphael,35,$28700
</pre>
This specifies a simple [[flat-file database]] [[Table (information)|table]] using the CSV file format.

===Bracket delimiters===
Bracket delimiters, also called block delimiters, region delimiters, or balanced delimiters, mark both the start and end of a region of text.<ref name="BalaDelm">{{cite book | last = Friedl | first = Jeffrey E. F. | title = Mastering Regular Expressions: Powerful Techniques for Perl and Other Tools | publisher = O'Reilly | year = 2002| isbn = 0-596-00289-0}} p. 319</ref><ref name="Scott000">{{cite book
| title     = Programming Language Pragmatics
| first     = Michael Lee
| last      = Scott
| publisher = Morgan Kaufmann
| year      = 1999
| isbn      = 1-55860-442-1
}}</ref>

Common examples of bracket delimiters include:<ref name="programmingperl">{{cite book | title=Programming Perl |edition=Third | publisher=O'Reilly |date=July 2000 | isbn=0-596-00027-8 | last1=Wall | first1=Larry | first2=Jon |last2=Orwant | author-link1=Larry Wall | author-link3=Jon Orwant }}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Delimiters
! style="text-align:left" | Description
|-
! <code>(</code> <code>)</code>
| [[Bracket#Parentheses|Parentheses]]. The [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]] programming language syntax is cited as recognizable primarily by its use of parentheses.<ref name="Kaufmann000">{{cite book
| title     = Computer-Aided Reasoning: An Approach
| first     = Matt
| last      = Kaufmann
| publisher = Springer
| year      = 2000
| isbn      = 0-7923-7744-3
}}p. 3</ref>
|-
! <code>{</code> <code>}</code>
| Braces (also called [[Bracket#Curly brackets|curly brackets]]<ref name="curly_brace_cstyle">{{cite book | last = Meyer | first = Mark | title = Explorations in Computer Science | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford Oxfordshire | year = 2005 | isbn = 978-0-7637-3832-7 }} references C-style programming languages prominently featuring curly brackets and semicolons.</ref>).
|-
! <code>[</code> <code>]</code>
| Brackets (commonly used to denote a subscript).
|-
! <code>&lt;</code> <code>&gt;</code>
| [[Bracket#Angle brackets|Angle brackets]].<ref name="id_1268443793898_27">{{cite book | last = Dilligan | first = Robert | title = Computing in the Web Age | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford Oxfordshire | year = 1998 | isbn = 978-0-306-45972-6 }}Describes syntax and delimiters used in HTML.</ref>
|-
! <code>"</code> <code>"</code>
| commonly used to denote [[string literal]]s.<ref name="id_1268443910269_75">{{cite book | last = Schwartz | first = Randal |author-link=Randal Schwartz | title = Learning Perl | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford Oxfordshire | year = 2005 | isbn = 978-0-596-10105-3 | url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780596101053 }}Describes [[string literal]]s.</ref>
|-
! <code>'</code> <code>'</code>
| commonly used to denote [[character literal]]s.<ref name="id_1268443910269_75"/>
|-
! <code><?</code> <code>?></code>
| used to indicate XML [[processing instruction]]s.<ref name="id_1268443998814_32">{{cite book | last = Watt | first = Andrew | title = Sams Teach Yourself Xml in 10 Minutes | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford Oxfordshire | year = 2003 | isbn = 978-0-672-32471-0 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/samsteachyoursel0000watt }} Describes XML processing instruction. p. 21.</ref>
|-
! <code>/*</code> <code>*/</code>
| used to denote [[comment (computer programming)|comment]]s in some programming languages.<ref name="id_1268444112328_77">{{cite book | last = Cabrera | first = Harold | title = C# for Java Programmers | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford Oxfordshire | year = 2002 | isbn = 978-1-931836-54-8 }} Describes single-line and multi-line comments. p. 72.</ref>
|-
! <code><%</code> <code>%></code>
| used in some [[web template]]s to specify language boundaries.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://github.com/jakartaee/pages/blob/master/spec/src/main/asciidoc/ServerPages.adoc#jakarta-server-pages-specification-version-40|title=Jakarta Server Pages Specification, Version 4.0akarta Server Pages Specification, Version 4.0|website=[[GitHub]] |access-date=2023-02-10}}</ref>
|}

===Conventions===
Historically, computing platforms have used certain delimiters by convention.<ref>{{cite iso-ir|date=December 1, 1975|number=1|title=The set of control characters for ISO 646||sponsor=ISO/TC 97/SC 2 |sponsor-link=ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2#History}}</ref><ref>{{cite iso-ir|date=December 1, 1975|number=6|title=ASCII graphic character set|sponsor=[[American National Standards Institute]]}}</ref> The following tables depict a few examples for comparison.

'''Programming languages'''
(''See also'', [[Comparison of programming languages (syntax)]]).
{| class="wikitable"
!   !! String Literal !! End of Statement
|-
! Pascal
| singlequote || semicolon
|-
! Python
| doublequote, singlequote || [[end of line]] (EOL)
|-
|}

'''Field and Record delimiters''' (''See also'', [[ASCII]], [[Control character]]).

{| class="wikitable"
!   !! End of Field !! End of Record !! End of File
|-
! [[Unix-like]] systems including [[macOS]], [[AmigaOS]]
| [[Tab key|Tab]] || [[Line feed|LF]] || none
|-
! [[Windows]], [[MS-DOS]], [[OS/2]], [[CP/M]]
| [[Tab key|Tab]] || [[CRLF]] || none (except in CP/M), [[Control-Z]]<ref name="id_1268444696385_5">{{cite book | last = Lewine | first = Donald | title = Posix Programmer's Guide | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford Oxfordshire | year = 1991 | isbn = 978-0-937175-73-6 | url = https://archive.org/details/posixprogrammers00lewi }} Describes use of control-z. p. 156,</ref>
|-
! [[Classic Mac OS]], [[Apple DOS]], [[ProDOS]], [[GS/OS]]
| [[Tab key|Tab]] || [[Carriage return|CR]] || none
|-
! ASCII/Unicode
| [[C0 and C1 control codes#Field_separators|UNIT SEPARATOR]]<br>Position 31 (U+001F) || RECORD SEPARATOR<br>Position 30 (U+001E) || FILE SEPARATOR<br>Position 28 (U+001C)
|}