Parser Behavior & Recovery

Boundary-bounded syntax-error recovery and processing options.

A conformant processor SHOULD recover from errors and continue, so that a single bad record does not discard the rest of a document.

Syntax-error recovery is bounded by structure

On a syntax error, the parser skips tokens until the next boundary and resumes there. The boundaries are:

• the record separator ~ (start of the next collection item), and

• the section separator --- (start of the next section),

• or end of input.

~ $schema: { name: string, age: int }
---
~ John, 28              # parsed
~ Bad, { unclosed      # syntax error here; parser skips to the next ~
~ Bob, 35              # parsed — recovery resumed at this record

The malformed middle record is reported as an error; the records before and after it are still parsed.

Validation recovery is bounded by the object

Each record is validated independently. A validation error in one record does not stop validation of the others (see Collection Rules).

Processing options

A processor typically offers options that control recovery and output. Common ones:

• continue-on-error — collect errors and keep going (recommended), versus failing on the first error.

• skip-errors — omit error entries from the loaded result, returning only the records that succeeded.

Option names and exact semantics are implementation-defined; this section describes the behaviors a conformant processor is expected to provide.

Error nodes

When continuing past an error, a processor marks the failed record with an error placeholder in the result so consumers can tell which records succeeded and which did not. See Error Accumulation.

See Also

• Error Model · Error Accumulation

• Syntax Errors