Delimiter
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The term delimiter refers to a separating character. In the following text, semicolons are used as delimiters between the numbers:
123;234;123;3454353;3453;
Delimiters are commonly used in computer files to separate data values. For example, the comma-separated values (CSV) file format uses a comma as the delimiter between fields, and a newline character as the delimiter between records.
One of the most interesting problems with using delimiters is the fact that often, data might use the character choosen as a delimiter. Consider a spreadsheet with the following values:
| Fred | Laura | Fred, Laura |
When saved to a CSV, the resulting file would include the line:
Fred,Laura,Fred,Laura
If you reopened the CSV file in the spreadsheet there would be four columns instead of the desired three.
| Fred | Laura | Fred | Laura |
Confusing data values with delimiters is quite a problem, with numerous solutions. One of the most common is escape characters.
For word delimiters used in written languages, see interword separation.