Timeline for answer to Why are statements in many programming languages terminated by semicolons? by uɐɪ
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| Oct 16, 2015 at 6:35 | comment | added | Stack Exchange Broke The Law | @alex.p Even in your example, the part after your semicolon is not a "working sentence". | |
| Sep 18, 2014 at 10:02 | vote | accept | A Coder | ||
| Sep 18, 2014 at 10:02 | vote | accept | A Coder | ||
| Sep 18, 2014 at 10:02 | |||||
| Mar 30, 2012 at 4:15 | history | bounty awarded | A Coder | ||
| Mar 20, 2012 at 12:33 | vote | accept | A Coder | ||
| Apr 5, 2012 at 10:06 | |||||
| Mar 15, 2012 at 14:14 | history | edited | uɐɪ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 1420 characters in body
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| Mar 14, 2012 at 22:55 | comment | added | iconoclast | @alex.p yes that makes sense now. I would agree that your example is far more similar to how we use semi-colons in code, since he was separating noun phrases, and in code there is generally some(thing at least analogous to a) verb. Point well taken. | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 10:19 | comment | added | Manishearth | In English; the semicolon is more often used; to just make; one; look; smarter. | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 10:14 | comment | added | alex.p | @Brandon I think what I was trying to say was that the use of the semi-colon in programming is more to do with separating out statements rather than for it's use in a list; for the most part a comma would be used. I'm not sure if my use is more common or not, I wouldn't be able to say, but it's certainly a rare case where you'd need to use a semi-colon to define a list. At least the programming semi-colon is used to define statements not lists. | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 9:50 | comment | added | uɐɪ | @Travis Christian - Semicolon added :) | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 9:49 | history | edited | uɐɪ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
edited to add the suggested semicolon
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| Mar 14, 2012 at 8:02 | comment | added | Rich | Hmm, perhaps they should add a "Migrate comments thread to english.se" button to programmers.se? | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 19:38 | comment | added | Travis | @Ian "this has to be a supposition, I was not there at the time" You missed a perfect opportunity to (correctly) use a semicolon there :) | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 18:35 | comment | added | Martin Beckett | If you are basing it on English then "." fullstop would be more logical but would probably cause confusion with a decimal point | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 18:01 | comment | added | iconoclast | @alex.p: It appears that you're saying Ian's use is wrong but you might be simply saying his explanation of how we use semi-colons is incomplete. If you're saying that he's wrong, then you're dead wrong. His use of semi-colons is entirely conventional, and I'd guess a lot more common than the example you give. If you're simply saying he does not give an exhaustive explanation, then I'm not sure why that's really worth even mentioning. | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 15:55 | comment | added | Ed James | Critical information about semicolons: theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 14:54 | history | edited | uɐɪ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Added another paragraph
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| Mar 13, 2012 at 14:48 | comment | added | Ryathal | @alex.p actually an acceptable use of a semicolon is in place of a comma when it would cause a sentence to be confusing, which makes this correct. | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 13:53 | comment | added | alex.p | Not entirely correct. The semi colon separates sentences into blocks: each block should be a working sentence but we use the semi-colon to denote that there is a strong link between two sentences. It's half way between a comma and a full stop so it is indeed a stopping point but it links one sentence to the next. The above sentence would be : "She saw three men; Jamie: who came from New Zealand, John: the milkman's son and George: a gaunt kind of man." Your use of the semi-colon could be replaced by a comma. Bit off topic but the gist is essentially the same; it breaks up statements. | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 9:48 | history | answered | uɐɪ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |