The keywords BEFORE_DIGIT, IGNORE, and USE_IT, which appear in , are word-delimiter attributes. Each word-delimiter attribute describes a word-break role played by a code page element. The complete set of word-delimiter attributes appears in the following table.

Table 1. Word-delimiter attributes
Word delimiter attribute Description Default
BEFORE_DIGIT
Treated as part of a word only if followed by a character with the DIGIT attribute Assigned to the following characters:
  • Period (.)
  • Comma (,)
  • Hyphen (-)
For example, "12.34" is one word, but "ab.cd" is two words.
BEFORE_LET_DIG
Treated as part of a word only if followed by a character with the LETTER or DIGIT attribute -
BEFORE_LETTER
Part of a word only if followed by a character with the LETTER attribute, otherwise treated as a word delimiter. -
DIGIT
Always part of a word Assigned to the characters 0-9.
IGNORE
Ignored Assigned to the apostrophe (').For example, "John's" is equivalent to "Johns."
LETTER
Always part of a word Assigned to all characters that the current attribute table defines as alphabetic. In English, these are the uppercase characters A-Z and the lowercase characters a-z.
TERMINATOR
Word delimiter Assigned to all other characters.
USE_IT
Always part of a word Assigned to the following characters:
  • Dollar sign ($)
  • Percent sign (%)
  • Number sign (#)
  • At symbol (@)
  • Underline (_)