Does an empty declaration appear after the last semi-colon if that semi-colon is followed by a closing brace?

Question

Let's look at this CSS rule:

#foo { color: red; }

As you can see, the declaration block of the above rule contains one declaration, namely color: red. However, according to my interpretation of the CSS standard, the above declaration block also contains a second, empty declaration, which is located between the chars ; and }.

#foo { color: red; }
                  ^ --- an empty declaration is located here

I'm asking this question on Stack Overflow to determine if my interpretation is correct, i.e. if there indeed exists a second, empty declaration in the above CSS rule.

Btw, I'm using the CSS 2.1 standard, specifically "Chapter 4: Syntax", since the "CSS Syntax" module is outdated, and not safe to use.

OK, let me explain. I base my interpretation on these definitions:

• The standard states that, within a declaration block, a semi-colon is a separator which appears between individual declarations:

  A declaration block starts with a left curly brace ({) and ends with the matching right curly brace (}). In between there must be a list of zero or more semicolon-separated (;) declarations.

  So, according to the above definition, a semi-colon my only appear between two declarations, i.e. a semi-colon must be both preceded, and followed by a declaration.

• The standard defines a declaration as:

  A declaration is either empty or consists of a property name, followed by a colon (:), followed by a property value.

  The above definition states that a declaration can be empty. Unfortunately, the standard does not define the term "empty declaration", nor is that term mentioned anywhere else in the standard.

Let's go back to the example:

#foo { color: red; }

The above rule is valid CSS. By applying the definition for semi-colons (from above), the semi-colon in this rule must both be preceded, and followed by a declaration. However, the semi-colon is followed by the closing curly brace (which ends the declaration). In order to explain this contradiction, I insert an empty declaration between ; and }, and provide this definition:

An empty declaration is the absence of a declaration in a position within a declaration block where a declaration i required, but not found.

Is this interpretation of the standard correct, and does the declaration block indeed contain two declarations?

Answer 1

Yes, this is normal in computer languages that define the semicolon as a separator and not part of a statement (or declaration or whatever). There is no other possible interpretation, and the issue has no practical impact, as an empty declaration has no effect.