Description
Stable-order bare MIME ranges by exact/type-wildcard/all-wildcard specificity only; excludes qualities, parameters and offer preference.
A media type has a type/subtype token and may carry named parameters. Multipart content uses explicit boundary delimiter lines around its parts. Token case rules, parameter quoting, repeated records and exact line endings affect how a representation is interpreted; a lexical check is narrower than parsing a complete message.1
Stable-order bare MIME ranges by exact/type-wildcard/all-wildcard specificity only; excludes qualities, parameters and offer preference.
When to use this tool
Use this tool to order bare MIME ranges from exact matches through type wildcards to the all-types wildcard, preserving input order within each specificity class.
How to use the tool and how it works
- Enter ranges using the field definitions below.
- Run the operation. Correct input errors before interpreting an output.
- Read result.ranges. Use the ordering, boundary rules and absence conditions described below.
Classify ranges as concrete, type wildcard or full wildcard with specificity 2, 1 or 0, then stably sort descending by specificity.2
| Input field | Meaning and units | Accepted input |
|---|---|---|
| ranges | Bare type/subtype ranges to order by specificity. | Dense list of at most 128 strings, each at most 8,192 UTF-16 code units. |
| Output field | Interpretation |
|---|---|
| result | Object containing the named fields below. |
| result.ranges | Ranges sorted by descending specificity, with original index and specificity score. |
{
"input": {
"ranges": [
"*/*",
"text/*",
"text/html"
]
},
"output": {
"result": {
"ranges": [
{
"range": "text/html",
"index": 2,
"specificity": 2
},
{
"range": "text/*",
"index": 1,
"specificity": 1
},
{
"range": "*/*",
"index": 0,
"specificity": 0
}
]
}
}
}Limitations and assumptions
- This is not complete Accept negotiation: quality weights, parameters and server preference are not included.
- Supported boundary strings contain 1–70 characters from the declared MIME boundary subset and cannot end in a space. Single-byte envelope budgets are distinct from UTF-8 text byte counts and from a complete MIME transport.
- Every declared top-level input field is required and unexpected fields are rejected. Ordinary strings are limited to 8,192 UTF-16 code units and lists to 128 entries, with tighter operation-specific bounds where stated. JSON text has bounded nesting and node counts.
- Numeric outputs must be finite and no larger in absolute magnitude than the safe-integer limit; operations returning exact large integers use decimal text. Positions are zero-based and spans end exclusively unless the operation explicitly states a different convention.
Alternative or Complementary methods
Choose the target media-type and multipart conventions explicitly. Use a complete MIME parser for nested messages and encodings; these record and delimiter tools handle only their stated representations.
References
-
RFC 2046: MIME Media Types — RFC Editor
-
Tool behavior and example: Media Type Offer Specificity Order — tool.io
Similar or alternative tools
- Media Type Wildcard Offer Match
Match explicit */*, type/* or exact MIME ranges against complete offers with ASCII case folding; no quality, parameters or suffix wildcard matching.
- Media Type Parameter Conflict Table
Audit conflicting decoded MIME parameter values under case-insensitive names and case-sensitive literal values; no registered-parameter equivalence inference.