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Word of the day: self-delimited

• From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>
• To: "xml-dev@lists.xml.org" <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
• Date: Fri, 8 May 2015 18:47:14 +0000

Hi Folks,

With JSON we can recognize that we have a complete JSON object when we encounter the matching right curly brace ( } ). 

We can recognize that we have a complete JSON array when we encounter the matching right bracket ( ] ).

And we can recognize that we have a complete JSON string when we encounter the matching quote ( " ).

But with a JSON number there is no delimiter that marks the end of the number. How do we know that this number didn't get truncated in transit:

	123

Only whitespace can delimit JSON numbers. Ditto for the other JSON values: true, false, and null.

JSON objects, arrays, and strings are self-delimited values. JSON numbers, true, false, null are not; they are non-self-delimited values.

This distinction is important when processing a sequence of JSON values (see RFC 7464 at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7464#section-2.4)

I believe that all XML texts are self-delimited. Yes?

/Roger

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Word of the day: self-delimited
    • From: Dimitre Novatchev <dnovatchev@gmail.com>