Structural Characters and Literals

Structural characters define the syntax and organization of data within an Internet Object document. These characters 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	Indicates the start of a new record in collections
:	Colon	U+003A	Key-value separator	Separates keys from their corresponding values
[	Open Square Bracket	U+005B	Array start	Begins an array structure
]	Close Square Bracket	U+005D	Array end	Ends an array structure
{	Open Curly Bracket	U+007B	Object start	Begins an object or dictionary
}	Close Curly Bracket	U+007D	Object end	Ends an object or dictionary
---	Triple Hyphens	U+002D	Section separator	Separates header and data sections of the document
#	Hash	U+0023	Comment delimiter	Initiates a single-line comment
"	Double Quote	U+0022	String delimiter	Encloses string values
'	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 }

# Array with values surrounded by square brackets
~ [ "item1", "item2", "item3" ]

Collections and Records

# Schema definition
~ $person: {name: string, age: number}

# Triple hyphens separate sections
---

# Tilde marks new record in the collection
~ "Alice", 25
~ "Bob", 30
~ "Charlie", 35

String Delimiters

{
    message1: "Hello World",    # Double quotes
    message2: 'Hello World',    # Single quotes (equivalent)
    path: "C:\Program Files\"   # Escaped quotes when needed
}

Structural Rules

• Balanced Delimiters: Opening brackets/braces must have corresponding closing ones

• Proper Nesting: Structures can be nested but must maintain proper hierarchy

• Separator Consistency: Commas separate elements within the same structure level

• Section Division: Triple hyphens (---) separate document sections

• Comment Scope: Hash (#) comments extend to end of line only

• String Equivalence: Single and double quotes are functionally equivalent

Grammar Context

Container Structures

• Objects: {key: value, key: value}

• Arrays: [value, value, value]

• Mixed Nesting: Objects and arrays can contain each other

Collection Format

• Header Section: Schema definitions and metadata

• Data Section: Actual records preceded by ~

• Section Separator: --- divides header from data

Comment Integration

• Inline Comments: # Comment text

• Full Line Comments: # Complete line comment

• Documentation: Comments can appear anywhere for annotation

See Also

• Other Special Characters - Additional functional characters

• Literals - Predefined constant values

• Comments - Comment syntax and usage

• Collections - Collection structure and records