Lexical Elements, Separators, and Delimiters
Author: JTC1/SC22/WG9/ARG, by Randall Brukardt, ARG Editor

Ada Reference Manual — Legal Information

# 2.2 Lexical Elements, Separators, and Delimiters

#### Static Semantics

1
The text of a program consists of the texts of one or more compilations. The text of each compilation is a sequence of separate lexical elements. Each lexical element is formed from a sequence of characters, and is either a delimiter, an identifier, a reserved word, a numeric_literal, a character_literal, a string_literal, or a comment. The meaning of a program depends only on the particular sequences of lexical elements that form its compilations, excluding comments.
2/3
The text of a compilation is divided into lines. In general, the representation for an end of line is implementation defined. However, a sequence of one or more format_effectors other than the character whose code point is 16#09# (CHARACTER TABULATION) signifies at least one end of line.
3/2
In some cases an explicit separator is required to separate adjacent lexical elements. A separator is any of a separator_space, a format_effector, or the end of a line, as follows:
4/2
A separator_space is a separator except within a comment, a string_literal, or a character_literal.
5/3
The character whose code point is 16#09# (CHARACTER TABULATION) is a separator except within a comment.
6
The end of a line is always a separator.
7
One or more separators are allowed between any two adjacent lexical elements, before the first of each compilation, or after the last. At least one separator is required between an identifier, a reserved word, or a numeric_literal and an adjacent identifier, reserved word, or numeric_literal.
7.1/3
One or more other_format characters are allowed anywhere that a separator is; any such characters have no effect on the meaning of an Ada program.
8/2
A delimiter is either one of the following characters:
9
& ' ( ) * + , – . / : ; < = > |
10
or one of the following compound delimiters each composed of two adjacent special characters
11
=> .. ** := /= >= <= << >> <>
12
Each of the special characters listed for single character delimiters is a single delimiter except if this character is used as a character of a compound delimiter, or as a character of a comment, string_literal, character_literal, or numeric_literal.
13
The following names are used when referring to compound delimiters:

delimiter | name
--- | ---
=> | arrow
.. | double dot
** | double star, exponentiate
:= | assignment (pronounced: “becomes”)
/= | inequality (pronounced: “not equal”)
>= | greater than or equal
<= | less than or equal
<< | left label bracket
>> | right label bracket
<> | box

#### Implementation Requirements

14
An implementation shall support lines of at least 200 characters in length, not counting any characters used to signify the end of a line. An implementation shall support lexical elements of at least 200 characters in length. The maximum supported line length and lexical element length are implementation defined.

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