In the IBM implementation we have taken the view that the separator defines the format for all of the group's content. That means that all separators are counted as being significant, even if they occur within the content region of the final group member. I agree that other interpretations are possible - the MRM parser in earlier versions of WebSphere Message Broker takes an infix separator out of scope when it encounters the final declared child of a group. I intend to address this point when I write up the rules for matching string literals and delimiters. regards, Tim Kimber, DFDL Team, Hursley, UK Internet: kimbert@uk.ibm.com Tel. 01962-816742 Internal tel. 37246742 From: Mike Beckerle <mbeckerle.dfdl@gmail.com> To: dfdl-wg@ogf.org, Date: 19/06/2013 03:52 Subject: [DFDL-WG] clarification on when escape characters are needed Sent by: dfdl-wg-bounces@ogf.org Suppose I have a sequence. It has an infix separator which is "=". <sequence dfdl:separator="=" dfdl:separatorPosition="infix"> <element name="a" type="xs:string"/> <element name="b" type="xs:string"/> </sequence> Now, consider this data: password=f82+=7&%q I want <a>password</a> <b>f82+=7&%q</b> Notice how the b element contains an '=' which was not escaped in any way in the sequence. Element b is statically known to be last, the separator is infix; hence, things are unambiguous even if there is no escaping. However, there is an alternative interpretation, which is that the above data should fail, because it produces <a>password</a><b>f82+</b> but then does not find the expected stuff next. Rather it finds the '=7&%q' data. In other words, the sequence separator divides the sequence content into 3 content regions, but there aren't 3 things to consume those, so it is a processing error. Which is correct? -- Mike Beckerle | OGF DFDL Workgroup Co-Chair | Tresys Technology | www.tresys.com -- dfdl-wg mailing list dfdl-wg@ogf.org https://www.ogf.org/mailman/listinfo/dfdl-wg Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU