The meta-symbols of BNF are: Symbol Meaning | or. Choose one of the items [ ] Enclose optional items. * Flags items that you can repeat 0 or more times. Has a special meaning in some SQL statements. { } Groups items so that they can be marked with one of the other symbols, i.e. [ ], |, or *. ( ) . , Other punctuation that is part of the syntax.

An example of how SQL syntax is presented: CREATE [ UNIQUE ] INDEX IndexName ON TableName ( SimpleColumnName [ , SimpleColumnName ] * )

Command-line syntax for running Java programs and utilities (as well as examples) always begins with the word java: java org.apache.derby.tools.ij

This documentation attempts to be JVM neutral, but any command line examples or syntax using JVM specific references should be verified with your JVM documentation.