[DFDL-WG] emptyValueDelimiterPolicy clarification

[Steve Hanson]

Yes. If either dfdl:initiator or dfdl:terminator is not empty string, 
meaning there will be an initiator or terminator in the data, then 
dfdl:emptyValueDelimiterPolicy must be specified to describe whether they 
are present, in case the element appears in the data as 'empty', meaning 
content is zero-length. Whether an element can actually appear in the data 
as empty depends on how it is modelled. In COBOL data where everything is 
dfdl:lengthKind 'explicit', the data content can never be empty otherwise 
the format breaks. But in CSV data, the data content can be omitted 
entirely without breaking the format. 

Regards

Steve Hanson
Architect, IBM Data Format Description Language (DFDL)
Co-Chair, OGF DFDL Working Group
IBM SWG, Hursley, UK
smh at uk.ibm.com
tel:+44-1962-815848



From:   "Garriss Jr., James P." <jgarriss at mitre.org>
To:     "dfdl-wg at ogf.org" <dfdl-wg at ogf.org>, 
Date:   30/05/2013 20:37
Subject:        [DFDL-WG] emptyValueDelimiterPolicy clarification
Sent by:        dfdl-wg-bounces at ogf.org



This property specifies whether the initiator/terminator must be present 
if the element is empty.  But the mere presence of this property does not 
specify that the element can be empty, right?  IOW, I still have to 
describe that the element can be empty.  That right?--
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