Open Strings

Open strings — the unquoted string form.

An open string is the simplest string form: a sequence of Unicode code points with no enclosing quotes. Open strings suit simple, unstructured text that does not begin or end with whitespace and does not require escaping of special or structural characters.

Open strings are scalar values. They preserve all internal whitespace and Unicode content, but cannot start or end with whitespace.

Syntax

An open string begins with any non-whitespace code point and ends at the first whitespace or structural character, or at the end of the document.

openString    = nonWhitespace (codepoint)*
nonWhitespace = any Unicode code point except whitespace
codepoint     = any Unicode code point except a structural character or document end

Structural characters

Symbol	Name	Unicode	Description
(space, tab, etc.)	Whitespace	Multiple	Terminates the string; cannot start or end it
:	Colon	U+003A	Structural character (terminates the string)
,	Comma	U+002C	Structural character (terminates the string)
{	Open curly bracket	U+007B	Structural character (terminates the string)
}	Close curly bracket	U+007D	Structural character (terminates the string)
[	Open square bracket	U+005B	Structural character (terminates the string)
]	Close square bracket	U+005D	Structural character (terminates the string)
"	Double quote	U+0022	Allowed; does not terminate or need escaping
'	Single quote	U+0027	Allowed; does not terminate or need escaping

Valid forms

Examples of valid open strings:

John Doe
Peter D'mello
जॉन डो
Wow Great
😃

Multiple open strings in an object:

जॉन डो, Wow Great, 😃

A multiline open string (no escaping required):

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consetetur sadipscing elitr sed
diam nonumy eirmod.

Tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat
sed diam voluptua

Optional behaviors

• Whitespace — an open string cannot start or end with whitespace, but preserves all internal whitespace.

• No escaping — character escaping is not processed; quotes and other characters appear as-is.

• Multiline — an open string can span multiple lines as long as no structural character interrupts it.

Comments

Comments are not allowed inside open strings, but may appear outside or between values, per the format's comment rules.

Invalid forms

Examples of invalid open strings:

 John Doe      # ✗ starts with whitespace (use a regular string: " John Doe")
"John Doe"     # ✗ quoted (this is a regular string, not an open string)

Preservation of structure

Internet Object preserves:

• All Unicode code points and internal whitespace as written

• The unquoted, open form of the string

It does not interpret or enforce:

• Escaping or encoding

• Leading or trailing whitespace (which is disallowed)

• Application-specific constraints

See Also

• Strings — the three string forms

• Regular Strings — quoted strings with escaping

• Raw Strings — literal strings without escape processing