---
title: No syntax block
slug: '1454'
canonical_url: https://docs.coveo.com/en/1454/
collection: build-a-search-ui
source_format: adoc
---
# No syntax block
The REST Search API can process [queries](https://docs.coveo.com/en/231/) to delete special characters from a section of the [query](https://docs.coveo.com/en/231/) marked with special delimiters.
This _no syntax block_ can be used to enclose variables to prevent special characters from inadvertently affecting the [query](https://docs.coveo.com/en/231/).

[%header,cols="2"]
|===
|No syntax block
|Delimiters

|Start
|`<@-`

|End
|`-@>`
|===

Special characters in no syntax blocks are removed from the [query](https://docs.coveo.com/en/231/).

**Example**

The Search API interprets `<@- @Hello $world -@> how are you` as `Hello world how are you`.

However, if any number of special characters appear between two [keywords](https://docs.coveo.com/en/2738/) without spaces, the Search API interprets those [keywords](https://docs.coveo.com/en/2738/) as contiguous and replaces the special characters with a dot (`.`) to form a [phrase match](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1686/) for those [keywords](https://docs.coveo.com/en/2738/).

**Example**

The Search API interprets `<@- Hello$=world -@> how are you` as `Hello.world how are you`.

> **Note**
>
> You can apply a no syntax block to the full [basic query expression (`q`)](https://docs.coveo.com/en/178/) by setting the `enableQuerySyntax` parameter to `false`.