delimiterscharacters

A delimiter is a character or sequence that marks the boundaries between units of data or text. Delimiters are used to separate tokens, fields, clauses, or records, making it possible to parse and interpret a stream of characters reliably.

In programming languages, common delimiters include parentheses (), brackets [], and braces {}, which group expressions and define scope; quotes '' or "" define string literals; and symbols such as comma , and semicolon ; can separate items or terminate statements. Some languages use indentation or newline as delimiters.

In data formats, delimiters indicate structure. CSV uses comma as the field delimiter and newline as the row delimiter; TSV uses tab. JSON uses punctuation as delimiters: braces {} for objects, brackets [] for arrays, and colon : to separate keys from values, with comma , between items. INI files use equals signs or colons to separate keys and values.

In natural language and text processing, delimiters include punctuation marks such as periods, commas, semicolons, colons, parentheses, and quotation marks, as well as whitespace, which acts as a delimiter between words.

Handling delimiters in software requires escaping or quoting when the delimiter itself may appear in the data. Robust parsers track opening and closing delimiters and detect mismatches to prevent errors or security issues such as injection.

Delimiters are a basic concept in data encoding and parsing, enabling structured interpretation of sequences by indicating where units start and end. The choice of delimiters depends on the data format, language, and localization considerations.