I am sorry for my ignorance

[Brent White]

I am having the worst time debugging a text file that is in the EDI
810 x12 format. No matter what I do it keeps telling me I have a
segment terminator that is not what I am using for a segment
terminator (or I should say, not INTENDING to use).

Here is a sample EDI string:

ISA*00* *00* *12*7048710990
*08*6129330000*-090623*0237*U*00401*20090623*0*T|-
~GS*IN*7048710990*6129330000*20090623*0237*20090623*X*004030-
~ST*810*00001-~BIG*20090622*0000437734**61809GPPW -
~REF*IA*BADGERS~REF*SB*E07-~N1*ST*Competitive Athletics*92*0936-~N3*c/
o Cerpa Imprinted Sportswear*21785 SW TV Highway Ste. M-
~N4*Aloha*OR*97006-~ITD*05*3****~DTM*011*20090622-
~IT1*100*8.00000*EA*13.25000*VN*002482RYWH XL -~PID*F*GEN*YOUTH
ROCKIES JERSEY-~TDS*106-~CAD****UPSA-~ISS***3.6*LB-~CTT*1-~SE*11*1-
~GE20090623*0237*20090623-~IEA*1*20090623-

I figure I'm doing something wrong in the ISA segment, but as of yet,
I can not figure out what it is.

Please help me!!

[Steven Dorst]

It appears to me that you either:
a) have a bad file or
b) are making assumptions about what character is being used for the
segment terminator or
c) both

I identify the segment terminator from the last non-null character in
the file. From the file above, this would be "-". As a crosscheck, the
segment terminator is ALSO always the <nth> character in the file -
I'm sorry I can't recall the "n", but I'm at home and don't have
access to my references. However, since the ISA segment is always
first, and all fields are fixed length, I leave determination of "n"
to someone who has access to the spec - counting the characters should
be easy.

If the segment terminator is "-", then there are other problems in the
file, as every other occurrence of "-" except the last is immediately
followed by "~" - when in a good file, every occurrence of the segment
terminator should be followed immediately by a valid segment type
(except for the final occurence).

Hope this helps!

Steve Dorst