Arrays

Arrays in Internet Object

An Array in Internet Object represents an ordered collection of values enclosed in square brackets. Arrays are scalar containers used to express lists, sequences, and multi-dimensional tabular structures.

Each value in an array may be:

A primitive (string, number, boolean, null),
A structured value (object or another array).

Internet Object arrays are syntactically compact, support nesting, and avoid ambiguity by enforcing strict value presence and disallowing trailing or elided elements.

Syntax

An array begins with [ and ends with ], containing zero or more comma-separated values.

array = "[" [ value *("," value) ] "]"

In the above grammar, value refers to any valid Internet Object value as defined in the Values section. The exact syntax and behavior of each value type (e.g., strings, numbers, booleans, objects, arrays, null) are defined separately in their respective type specifications.

Structural Characters

Symbol

Name

Unicode

Description

[

Open Square Bracket

U+005B

Starts an array

]

Close Square Bracket

U+005D

Ends an array

,

Comma

U+002C

Separates values within array

Valid Forms

[]                       # Empty array
[apple, banana, cherry]  # String values
[1, 2, 3]                # Number values
[T, F, N]                # Boolean and null values
[{x:1}, {y:2}]           # Array of objects
[1, [2, 3], [4, [5, 6]]] # Nested arrays
[[1,2],[3,4]]            # 2D array

Optional Behaviors

Whitespace and Formatting

Whitespace is permitted around elements and structural characters for readability.

[ a , b , c ]   # Valid

All forms with equivalent value structure are interpreted identically.

Empty Representation

An empty array is written as:

[]

This represents a valid array with no elements.

Nesting

Arrays may contain other arrays, allowing arbitrarily deep structures.

[1, [2, 3], [[4]]]

Comments

Comments are allowed around and within arrays, as long as they comply with Internet Object's general comment syntax.

[
  1, 2,  # inline comment
  3
]

Comments must not break value boundaries. Embedded comment styles (like inside strings or object keys) are not permitted.

Invalid Forms

[a, b, ]     # ❌ Trailing comma
[a,,c]       # ❌ Elided value
[ , ]        # ❌ Missing value
[,a]         # ❌ Starts with comma
[a b c]      # ❌ Missing separators

Corrected Versions

[a, b]       # ✅ Valid
[a, null, c] # ✅ Use null for missing values

Preservation of Structure

Internet Object preserves:

Value order
Whitespace (non-significant in interpretation)
Syntactic fidelity (as written)

However, it does not interpret:

The meaning of order
Whether values must be unique

Such semantics are the responsibility of the schema layer, validators, or application logic.