Ellipsis

An ellipsis (. . .) means that you can repeat the last unit as many times as you like. In this syntax statement, buy is a required keyword:

buy thing = price [cash | check | credit] 
    [, thing = price [cash | check | credit] ]... 

You must buy at least one thing and give its price. You may choose a method of payment: one of the items enclosed in square brackets. You may also choose to buy additional things: as many of them as you like. For each thing you buy, give its name, its price, and (optionally) a method of payment.

An ellipsis can also be used inline to signify portions of a command that are left out of a text example. The following syntax statement represents the complete create database command, even though required keywords and other options are missing:

create database...for load