Description
Find the longest suffix of one literal delimiter that is a prefix of the next, measured in UTF-16 units.
Parsing depends on the chosen grammar, character encoding, offset unit, and treatment of escapes and delimiters. UTF-16 code-unit positions, Unicode code points, and UTF-8 byte offsets are not interchangeable. A boundary or token check supplies one part of a parser rather than validating an entire file.
Find the longest suffix of one literal delimiter that is a prefix of the next, measured in UTF-16 units.
When to use this tool
Use Delimiter Overlap Prefix Length when you need the stated token boundary, offset, prefix, delimiter, or count component inside a larger parsing workflow.
How to use the tool and how it works
- Enter leftDelimiter, rightDelimiter. Use the units and conventions below.
- Run the tool. Correct any format, range, or cross-field input error before interpreting the output.
- Read overlapLength, overlap. Use the output convention below.
Find the largest length for which leftDelimiter ends with the corresponding prefix of rightDelimiter. Return overlapLength and that shared prefix.1
| Input field | Meaning and units | Accepted input |
|---|---|---|
| leftDelimiter | Left Delimiter | Required. Text; maximum UTF-16 length 8192. |
| rightDelimiter | Right Delimiter | Required. Text; maximum UTF-16 length 8192. |
| Output field | Interpretation | Returned shape |
|---|---|---|
| overlapLength | Overlap Length | Required. Safe integer. |
| overlap | Overlap | Required. Text; maximum UTF-16 length 8192. |
{
"input": {
"leftDelimiter": "abcab",
"rightDelimiter": "abx"
},
"output": {
"overlapLength": 2,
"overlap": "ab"
}
}Limitations and assumptions
- Matching uses exact UTF-16 string operations and may split surrogate pairs. Empty strings give zero overlap; no token stream, escape handling, or grammar ambiguity is analyzed.
- Inputs must satisfy both the field types and the cross-field conditions above. Invalid input causes an error; a successful false flag or documented placeholder is a different result.
Alternative or Complementary methods
Choose a parser for the intended complete grammar when context, nesting, encodings, or semantic validation matters. Keep byte, code-unit, and code-point coordinates explicit when combining results.
References
Similar or alternative tools
- Escaped Delimiter Parity
Inspect an explicitly selected UTF-16 delimiter position under a repeated single-character escape parity convention.
- Bracket Depth Prefix Balance
Inspect literal bracket prefix counts without handling strings, comments or escapes.