ECMAScript® 2021 Language Specification

Draft ECMA-262 / March 3, 2021

12.2 White Space

White space code points are used to improve source text readability and to separate tokens (indivisible lexical units) from each other, but are otherwise insignificant. White space code points may occur between any two tokens and at the start or end of input. White space code points may occur within a StringLiteral, a RegularExpressionLiteral, a Template, or a TemplateSubstitutionTail where they are considered significant code points forming part of a literal value. They may also occur within a Comment, but cannot appear within any other kind of token.

The ECMAScript white space code points are listed in Table 34.

Table 34: White Space Code Points
Code Point Name Abbreviation
U+0009 CHARACTER TABULATION <TAB>
U+000B LINE TABULATION <VT>
U+000C FORM FEED (FF) <FF>
U+0020 SPACE <SP>
U+00A0 NO-BREAK SPACE <NBSP>
U+FEFF ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE <ZWNBSP>
Other category “Zs” Any other Unicode “Space_Separator” code point <USP>

ECMAScript implementations must recognize as WhiteSpace code points listed in the “Space_Separator” (“Zs”) category.

Note

Other than for the code points listed in Table 34, ECMAScript WhiteSpace intentionally excludes all code points that have the Unicode “White_Space” property but which are not classified in category “Space_Separator” (“Zs”).

Syntax

WhiteSpace :: <TAB> <VT> <FF> <SP> <NBSP> <ZWNBSP> <USP>