Delimiter

Delimiter, delimiter (English for delimiter ), or separators are used to distinguish individual elements in data. Delimiters are special function characters. In addition to the delimiter character to separate elements also of segments or lines are used.

Examples

• Lines in text files in Linux by the control character LF and under Windows by the sequence CR LF separated from each other (see also: newline ).
• In CSV files elements usually with comma or semicolon; separately. The segment delimiter here is mostly the newline.
• For XML and HTML, there is no delimiter, the elements are separated by tags.
• In order to separate directories in pathname information is on Linux, the slash / and on Windows the backslash \ is used (see also: ₩ ).
• In EDIFACT messages is usually the apostrophe ' the segment delimiter.
• Strings are delimited by quotation marks "or single quotes '.

Separators in programming languages

In many programming languages ​​separators are used in two aspects: delineation of keywords white spaces and comments are often admitted. Consecutive instructions are often described by a semicolon; separated from each other.

Alternative

Alternatively to the use of separator elements can also be distinguished by their fixed prescribed position and its length. If the actual content of an element be shorter than required for the element, the element is through padding, usually zeros or blanks, padded to the correct length. The IBAN ( International Bank Account Number ) is for example as follows.

See also

• Hyphenation characters