There are other (less common) uses for the semicolon too.
1) To join a list of phrases or items that already contain commas:
"The digitaries who signed the 1945 surrender of Japan were as follows: General Douglas McArthur and Admiral Chester H. Nimitz, United States; Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, United Kingdom; General Hsu Yung-Chang, China; Lt. General Kuzma Nikolaevish Derevyanko, USSR; General Sir Thomas Blamey, Australia; Colonel L. Moore Cosgrave, Canada; Admiral C.E.L. Helfrich, Netherlands; Air Vice Marshall Isitt, New Zealand; General B.J. LeClerc, France; Mr. Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu, Japan."
(educational sidetrack
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)
2) To join two main clauses that might otherwise use transitional phrases ("on the other hand", "as a result", etc.):
"I said I'd eat dinner; I didn't say when I would eat."
3) To seperate two clauses joined with conjunctive adverbs (also, anyway, finally, hence, however, instead, next, therefore, and thus):
"I waited for my date for thirty minutes; she finally came."