Structural Characters & Separators

The core characters that organize and delimit data in an Internet Object document.

Structural characters define the syntax and organization of data within an Internet Object document. They form the foundation of the format's grammar and control how data is parsed and interpreted.

Character set

Symbol

Name

Unicode

Function

Context

,

Comma

U+002C

Value separator

Separates items in arrays and objects

~

Tilde

U+007E

Record delimiter

Marks the start of a new record in a collection

:

Colon

U+003A

Key-value separator

Separates a key from its value

[

Open square bracket

U+005B

Array start

Begins an array

]

Close square bracket

U+005D

Array end

Ends an array

{

Open curly bracket

U+007B

Object start

Begins an object

}

Close curly bracket

U+007D

Object end

Ends an object

---

Triple hyphen

U+002D

Section separator

Separates the header and data sections

#

Hash

U+0023

Comment delimiter

Starts a single-line comment

"

Double quote

U+0022

String delimiter

Encloses a string value

'

Single quote

U+0027

String delimiter

Alternative string delimiter

Usage examples

Basic structure

# Surrounding braces define the object,
# and key-value pairs are separated by colons and commas
~ { name: "John Doe", age: 30, active: true }

# An array encloses its values in square brackets
~ [ "item1", "item2", "item3" ]

Collections and records

# Schema definition
~ $person: {name: string, age: number}
# Triple hyphens separate the header from the data
---
# A tilde marks each new record in the collection
~ "Alice", 25
~ "Bob", 30
~ "Charlie", 35

String delimiters

{
    message1: "Hello World",      # Double-quoted string
    message2: 'Hello World',      # Single-quoted (equivalent)
    quote: "She said \"hi\""      # Escape an inner quote with a backslash
}

For values that contain many backslashes — such as Windows paths or regular expressions — use a raw string (r"C:\Temp\new"), where backslashes are literal.

Structural rules

Balanced delimiters — every opening bracket or brace must have a matching closing one.
Proper nesting — structures may nest but must preserve a well-formed hierarchy.
Separator consistency — commas separate elements at the same structural level.
Section division — triple hyphens (---) separate the header and data sections.
Comment scope — a hash (#) comment extends to the end of the line only.
String equivalence — single and double quotes are functionally equivalent.