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EDIFACT Delimiters or separators

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Mulligan, Matthew (GEIS)

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Oct 7, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/7/98
to
Rolando,

EDIFACT delimiters can be defined in the UNA Service String Advice segment.

The UNA is transmitted as a single string of 9 characters prior to the UNB
Interchange segment. UNA is OPTIONAL within European countries, but
REQUIRED between the U.S. and its overseas trading partners.

Level A Definition
Character 1 : Sub-element delimiter
Character 2 + Data element delimiter
Character 3 . or , Decimal point indicator
Character 4 ? Release character
Character 5 (space) Reserved for future use
Character 6 ' Segment terminator

e.g. Level A ===== UNA:+.? '

Here is a list of the characters that are identified as useable:

LEVEL A CHARACTER SET
---------------------
Letters, upper case A to Z
Numerals 0 to 9
Space character
Fullstop .
Comma ,
Hyphen/minus sign -
Opening parentheses (
Closing parentheses )
Oblique stroke (slash) /
Equals sign =

The following are RESERVED for use as:
Apostrophe ' segment terminator
Plus sign + segment tag and data element separator
Colon : component data element separator
Question mark ? release character

Release Character: A Question mark ( ? ) immediately preceding one of the
characters ' + : ? restores their normal meaning. E.g. 10?+10=20 means
10+10=20.

Hope this helps.
Cheers,

Matt Mulligan
GE Information Services
Seattle, WA

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rolando Martinelli [SMTP:ro...@pananet.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 1998 2:57 PM
> To: ED...@UCCVMA.UCOP.EDU
> Subject: EDIFACT Delimiters or separators
>
> Hi, can anybody tell me what the EDIFACT delimiters or separators are for
> segments, elements and compound elements?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rolando H. Martinelli
> Tel. 507-214-7712 o 13
> Fax 507-214-7714
> Celular 507-612-4440
> E-Mail: ro...@pananet.com <mailto:ro...@pananet.com>
>
> << File: Rolando H. Martinelli (E-mail).vcf >>

tfries

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Oct 7, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/7/98
to
most of my EDIFACT Partners are using the following.

sub term = :
ele term = +
seg term = '

Andrew Paterson

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Oct 9, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/9/98
to
On Wed, 7 Oct 1998 18:46:27 -0400, Matt Mulligan wrote:

>Rolando,
>
>EDIFACT delimiters can be defined in the UNA Service String Advice segment.

However, please take notice of the following note from the EDIFACT
Syntax Implementation Guidelines:

"NOTE: ONLY in very special circumstance, (for example, at level A
Syntax, if a user application group were interchanging only data
related to mathematical equations, or, at level B syntax, if it were
found that any IS character from ISO646 had been utilized for a
specific function by a network or by a communications protocol),
should any other delimiters than those detailed for Levels A and B be
used."

Also note that there is a "hidden" implication in using the UNA
segment. Without it, numbers can use either the full stop/period (e.g.
US, UK usage) or comma (many European countries) as a decimal
separator. If a UNA segment is present, however, it fixes the decimal
separator that can be used in the message.

<Explanation of UNA segment for Level A character set snipped>
The replies to Ronaldo's question (so far!) have only mentioned the
Level A separators. When using the Level B (for lowercase letters) or
Level C, D, E, F (allowing various European accented characters etc.)
character sets, the standard separators become:
IS1 - component data element separator (composite)
IS3 - data element separator
IS4 - segment terminator
These are non-printable "control" characters which sit just below the
space character in the 7-bit ASCII character set. However, in all of
the instances of interchanges using the Level B, C character sets that
I have come across, a UNA segment has been used to change the
separators back to the printable Level A separators. I have even found
some that use the Level A separators without a UNA segment!

>UNA is OPTIONAL within European countries, but
>REQUIRED between the U.S. and its overseas trading partners.

I have not heard of this requirement before, where I can find out more
about this (and any other US-specific requirements for EDIFACT)?

Hope that this helps,
Andrew Paterson
andrew....@burnsos.com
Standard disclaimer applies

William J. Kammerer

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Oct 9, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/9/98
to
Andrew Paterson asked "I have not heard of this requirement [that the
UNA is REQUIRED between the U.S. and its overseas trading partners]

before, where I can find out more about this (and any other US-specific
requirements for EDIFACT)?"

You haven't heard of such a requirement because there is none.
Remember, we're the Home of the Free and the Land of the Brave, and we
don't cotton too much to centralized mandates from self-important EDI
authorities. Maybe some big international companies domiciled in the
U.S. have such requirements, but that's their business. Or simply,
maybe U.S. companies use the UNOB syntax level so they can use upper and
lower case characters, like they're used to in X12; this causes the IS
delimiters to be assumed in the absence of a UNA, and to override that
default (to switch back to the printable delimiters), a UNA would be
required.

Anyway, all the detail on the interchange structure for EDIFACT is
available on the Web. The new Version 4 of ISO 9735 (whose non-security
parts will be implemented on April 1,1999) is available from the UN/ECE
CEFACT's Documents for the March 1998 Session at
http://www.unece.org/trade/untdid/sessdocs/all_0398.htm. Specifically,
you'll be interested in TRADE/WP.4/R.1241 Part 1: Syntax rules common to
all parts, together with syntax service directories for each of the
parts.

ISO 9735 was first released in 1998 as Version 1, amended and reprinted
in 1990 as Version 2, and had an Addendum 1 attached in 1992 (making
Version 3, which has UNOC full ASCII character set). The ISO 9735 V2
documents (which describe the current implementable interchange
structure, with the exception of UNOC) are available at
http://www.unicc.org/unece/trade/untdid/. The EDIFACT Application level
syntax rules describing the control segments like UNA, UNB and UNZ
specifically for ISO 9735 V2 are at
http://www.unicc.org/unece/trade/untdid/texts/d422_d.htm.

William J. Kammerer
FORESIGHT Corp.
6543E Commerce Pkwy.
Dublin, OH USA 43017-3221
(614) 791-1600 (voice)
(614) 791-1609 (fax)
e-mail: wkam...@foresight-edi.com
Visit FORESIGHT Corp., the world's leading supplier of EDI productivity
tools, at http://www.foresight-edi.com/

Andrew Black

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Oct 12, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/12/98
to
A little typo:

When William J. Kammerer wrote:

> ISO 9735 was first released in 1998 as Version 1, amended and reprinted

I believe he meant 1988.

Wow, that means it was 10 years of EDIFACT sometime this year - did I
miss the party?
Greetings,
Andrew
--
| Andrew Black |
| Philips Semiconductors bv |
| PD Data Manager, BE 109, |
| Post Box 218, 5600 MD Eindhoven, The Netherlands |
| tel: +31 40 2723120 fax: +31 40 27 24799 |
| e-mail: A.B...@ehv.sc.philips.com |

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