Release character example

The group type Record type has a literal delimiter of , and a release character of ?. The group type Record has three item components. Data for the record looks like the following:

Miller?, MD,Harkin Hospital,1996

The ? releases the comma after Miller.

In the first field, the actual data value is Miller, MD. Because the comma appears as part of the data, it is necessary to have the release character ?, which indicates that the , following it is data, not a delimiter. This data would be interpreted as the following:

Data for component #1: Miller, MD

Data for component #2: Harkin Hospital

Data for component #3: 1996

A release character can apply to a delimiter, a terminator, or even the release character itself.

If a release character appears in the data and it is not followed by a syntax item, the release character is ignored.