# REST Semicolon

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rest-semicolon/70699>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [October 2, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rest-semicolon/70699 "2006-10-02T04:42:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![brandon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/f08c70/32.png) [@brandon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brandon)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rest-semicolon/70699/1 "2006-10-02T04:42:49Z")

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“So what’s the deal with the semi-colon in the edit URL in REST-enabled  
RoR applications?” - Jerry Seinfeld

It’s a good question. Is this acceptable to use in live applications?  
Are there any apps online that are refactored to REST where the  
semi-colon appears in a URL?

Brandon

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**Author:** ![brandon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/f08c70/32.png) [@brandon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brandon)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 5:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rest-semicolon/70699/2 "2006-10-02T05:28:02Z")

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We have [We Work Remotely: Remote jobs in design, programming, marketing and more](https://jobs.37signals.com/jobs/new;preview) for example. The ;  
is a valid character in URLs, so there’s no reason why you should fear  
this in a live application.

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**Author:** ![brandon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/f08c70/32.png) [@brandon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brandon)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 5:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rest-semicolon/70699/3 "2006-10-02T05:58:24Z")

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DHH wrote:

> We have [We Work Remotely: Remote jobs in design, programming, marketing and more](https://jobs.37signals.com/jobs/new;preview) for example. The ;  
> is a valid character in URLs, so there’s no reason why you should fear  
> this in a live application.

DHH… you da man. Keep up the good work.

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**Author:** ![brandon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/f08c70/32.png) [@brandon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brandon)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rest-semicolon/70699/4 "2006-10-02T15:28:56Z")

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On Sun, 01 Oct 2006 20:23:56 -0700, DHH wrote:

> We have [We Work Remotely: Remote jobs in design, programming, marketing and more](https://jobs.37signals.com/jobs/new;preview) for example. The ;  
> is a valid character in URLs, so there’s no reason why you should fear  
> this in a live application.

Yes, and plus is a valid character in e-mail addresses, yet I switched  
to  
hyphens for my “plus-addressing” because so many Perl scripts couldn’t  
deal  
with plusses. I’d regularly give out “removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid” and get  
mail addressed to “jay@localhost; removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid”.

So your first argument (we haven’t seen any problems yet) is much more  
convincing than your second (it’s a valid character) 🙂

Jay L.