# Lexical conventions

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## Table of contents

-   [Lexical elements](#lexical-elements)

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## Lexical elements

The first stage of processing a
[source file](/docs/design/code_and_name_organization/source_files.md) is the
division of the source file into lexical elements.

A _lexical element_ is one of the following:

-   a maximal sequence of [whitespace](whitespace.md) characters
-   a [word](words.md)
-   a literal:

    -   a [numeric literal](numeric_literals.md)
    -   a [string literal](string_literals.md)

-   a [comment](comments.md)
-   a [symbolic token](symbolic_tokens.md)

The sequence of lexical elements is formed by repeatedly removing the longest
initial sequence of characters that forms a valid lexical element.