Specify how to identify and delimit (separate) data elements, categories or fields.

• Comma-Separated Value (CSV) - contains the values in a table as a series of ASCII text lines with each column value separated by a comma and each row starting a new line
• Data Interchange Format (DIF) - developed by Software Arts, Inc. and made popular through its use by spreadsheet applications, DIF is not as popular today as it once was, but it is still supported by many products
• Directory Interchange Format (DIF) - used to create directory entries which describe a group of data
• Directory Interchange Format (DIF) Formal Syntax Specification v7.0
• Directory Interchange Format (DIF) Writer's Guide, Version 7
• Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)
• Midwest SGML Forum
• Robin Cover's SGML/XML Page