delimiter

This article describes the use of separators, especially in computers. One of them - and the most common - is the space .

Separator , delimiter ( English for, delimiter '), or separators may be used to distinguish individual elements in data. Separators are special function characters . In addition to the separator for elements , characters are also used to separate segments or lines .

Examples

• Decimal separator
• Grouping of digits
  • using special spaces such as »« (regular space) or »« (digit grouping character), »« (narrow space), »« (hairline) etc. or
  • Period  ».« Or comma  »,« or
  • Hyphen  "′" or apostrophe replacement character "'" (single straight quotation mark ).
• Hyphenation marks
• Lines in text files are separated from each other in Unix-like operating systems by the control character line feed (LF) and under Windows by the control character sequence of carriage return and line feed (CRLF); with the old Mac OS “Classic” only a carriage return (CR) was used (see also: Line break ).
• In CSV files , elements are usually separated with a comma "," or a semicolon  ";" but also with horizontal tab characters (TSV); sometimes the element contents are put in straight quotation marks. The segment separator is here i. d. R. the line break.
• To separate directories in paths is in Unix-like operating systems, forward slash  "/" ( slash ) and on Windows the backslash  "\" ( backslash (: see also) used ₩ ).
• In EDIFACT messages, the apostrophe replacement character "'" is usually the segment separator.

Separators in programming languages

In many programming languages, separators are used in two respects: White spaces and comments are often allowed to separate keywords . Consecutive statements are often separated from one another by a semicolon . ;

alternative

As an alternative to the use of separators, elements can also be distinguished by their fixed position and length . If the actual content of an element is shorter than specified for the element, the element is  padded to the correct length using filler characters - usually zeros or spaces . The international bank account number (IBAN) is structured like this, for example.

See also

• Conjunctivators

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Definition: delimiter. August 23, 1996. Retrieved September 25, 2010 .