In XQuery, allow a semicolon at the end of the module

[michaelhkay]

A trivial little enhancement to remove an irritant: allow a semicolon after the query body in a query. Specifically, change

QueryBody ::= Expr

to

QueryBody ::= Expr Separator?

[ndw]

In my days writing XQuery, I would often come across modules written as

some XQuery ; some more XQuery ; yet more XQuery

I almost never did it, and I don't recall exactly what it meant. I think the ; formed a transaction boundary. But maybe that was a MarkLogicism.

Is using semicolons that way valid according to the XQuery 4.0 syntax, and if it is, does this proposal change it at all?

[ChristianGruen]

I would tend to be strict. Semicolons are illegal in many other languages, too, and it seems arbitrary to me to allow them in XQuery. We should then allow trailing commas, too, and possibly other characters (?).

@ndw IIRC, the semicolon was a valid character in the XQuery Scripting Extension, with John Snelson being one of the editors. Maybe MarkLogic was inspired by it (or the other way round)?

[ndw]

Could be. Thank you, @ChristianGruen. On casual inspection of the grammar, it certainly looked like an extension. Thanks for the confirmation.

[michaelhkay]

Yes, semicolon was used as a separator or terminator (I forget which) in XQuery Scripting proposals.

Languages differ greatly in how strict they are about semicolons. In Java I rely heavily on the IDE to tell me when I've got it wrong, because the rules have become very arbitrary.

[dnovatchev]

A trivial little enhancement to remove an irritant: allow a semicolon after the query body in a query. Specifically, change

QueryBody ::= Expr

to

QueryBody ::= Expr Separator?

Hope you mean XQuery and nor XPath? :)

[ChristianGruen]

I think we shouldnt’ introduce optional semicolons. I’ve assigned »Propose Closing with No Action« (everyone: please object).

[ndw]

The CG agreed to close this issue without action at meeting 040.