Re: Parens in queries

[Chris R. <chr...@me...>]

Jochen Stenzel <Joc...@ic...> wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> we are using Net::LDAP successfully for years now. Working on a query
> generator, we just recognized that additional parens around a (partial
> or complete) query can make a significant difference even if one would
> not expect it: "(sn=name)" supplies results, while "((sn=name))" does
> not. Is this behaviour defined? (We looked at RFC 2254 but did not find
> a hint.)
> 
> Thanks in advance
> 
>                       Jochen

The ABNF in RFC 2254 does not permit ((sn=name)).

----
        filter     = "(" filtercomp ")"
        filtercomp = and / or / not / item
        and        = "&" filterlist
        or         = "|" filterlist
        not        = "!" filter
        filterlist = 1*filter
        item       = simple / present / substring / extensible
        simple     = attr filtertype value
[...]
----

So the outer ( ) would be the filter surrounding a filtercomp. The
filtercomp cannot be 'and' (it doesn't start with &), 'or' (not |), 'not'
(not |) or 'item' (not an attr), therefore the filter is not legal.

Cheers,

Chris