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LDC-Q0001 — The query has a character the language does not allow

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# LDC-Q0001 — The query has a character the language does not allow

## What it means

A LawQL query is read character by character before anything else happens:
names, numbers, punctuation the query language defines. A character outside
that alphabet — pasted from a chat window, a smart quote from a text
editor — stops the read at that exact spot. Nothing is searched; the query
never reaches the data.

The fix is local to the reported line and column: delete or retype the
offending character. The rest of the query stays as written.

## Example

```lawql
???
```

## Fix

```lawql
from r in rules select r
```

## Engine message

The engine reports this in its own wording:

```text
LDC-Q0001: unexpected character '?' (line 1, column 1).
```

## Related

- [Questions to the engine](/constructs/queries/) — what a well-formed query looks like.