Matt Brown, of Internet Commerce Corporation, wants to know how they
ever came up with a max use of 43 for the YNQ segment within the NX1
loop in the ASC X12 Transaction Set 262 Residential Appraisal Report
(since renamed Real Estate Information Report). He thinks that's a
pretty odd maximum usage, and is left scratching his head. To
complicate matters further, its sister transaction set - the 261 Real
Estate Information/Appraisal Request - has only a max use of 16 in the
equivalent location.
Dear Matt:
You had better stop scratching your head right now. At one time, I used
to do the same wondering about stupid stuff like this; now I have less
hair to show for it. But it's amazing that after all these years
entertaining myself with the EDISIM Standards Reference, I never once
agonized over this issue of oddball repeat counts.
But you did get me wondering. And scratching my head once again.
It would be too clean if the designers had chosen a nice prime number
like 43 out of a sense of esthetics. While it would not have surprised
me that the 43 is the exact number of Yes-No questions on some paper
form of an appraisal report (as often there's a bad habit in EDI,
especially the X12 variety, of transferring the contents of paper
documents verbatim to the EDI message), perhaps there's an even more
prosaic reason for the odd max use specification for the YNQ.
Let's go to the beginning - of the 262, that is. To find out when a
transaction set first made its debut in X12, just go to the Status
Report - Quick Summary at http://www.x12.org/x12/dev/. There you will
see that the 262 was added in X12 Version-Release 003050. At that time
exactly 45 Real Estate Information codes were added to YNQ01 (D.E.
1321 - Condition Indicator) simultaneously, presumably meant for the
262 alone: 1B thru 1Z, except for 1L and 1R, and 2B thru 2Y, except for
2L and 2R. These similar counts, 45 and 43, are too close to chalk up
to mere chance, so I'd venture a guess that either (1) at one point 43
new codes were anticipated when the transaction set was designed, with 2
added later, or (2) it was clear some codes would never be used in the
first YNQ within the NX1 property loop.
But you may now be asking: Billy Joe, how in the world did you know
which codes were added to YNQ01 in 003050? Well, I could have
laboriously compared the code list with that of the immediately
preceding publication of X12 003042. But my laziness instead compelled
me to take advantage of the EDISIM Comparator, which by comparing 003042
to 003050, was able to show me just the additions made in 003050.
Excluding new codes which obviously had nothing to do with appraisals
(such as code 2A - "Patient is receiving oral anti-fungal therapy"), I
came up with the 45 Real Estate Information codes noted above.
Now, if you examine the descriptions of those codes used in appraisal
reports, you will see a lot of mutual exclusivity: for example, the
Property is either occupied by owner (1B), or a tenant (1C), or is
vacant (1D). Clearly, only one of those three codes would ever be
needed in a YNQ segment within the same NX1 loop. So maybe they got
smart when the 261 Appraisal Request was added in 003051, and gave the
YNQ just enough repetitions to handle the maximum number of non mutually
exclusive conditions that could arise.
But if this explanation still doesn't satisfy you, well...ask somebody
who...cares. I suggest you look to the people who "own" these
transaction sets: the ASC X12 Finance Subcommittee Lending Task Group
(X12F/TG9). By perusing around in their minutes at http://www.x12.org/,
you can get a couple names of responsible people to call. I figure that
if you didn't mind bringing this up to thousands of people on EDI-L, you
won't be shy about calling the X12F people at their day jobs and
bothering them. Also check out the Real Estate Information Workgroup of
the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, at http://www.reiwg.com/,
for more names to call.
William J. Kammerer
FORESIGHT Corp.
4950 Blazer Memorial Pkwy.
Dublin, OH USA 43017-3305
(614) 791-1600
Visit FORESIGHT Corp. at http://www.foresightcorp.com/
"Commerce for a New World"
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