Henk-Jan, Some trading partners have less sophisticated translation software (home-grown) than others. As with most EDI elements, the best practice is to verify the use of separators/terminators with your trading partner.
My practice is to determine a default set of delimiters which I will send. My preference is vertical bar (|) for element, carat (^) for sub-element, and tilde (~) for segment. Then should the trading partner be unable or unwilling to deal with these, I try to accommodate their wishes. Note that in establishing the element separator, one can reliably select the first character after the string ISA in the first segment of the message. But it is not reliable to count positions to find the sub-element separator. This is because of the frequently-misunderstood ISA Sequence Number, which is defined as a numeric field. X12 indicates that a numeric field may have a sign, which is only transmitted when negative, and is not counted in the minimum/maximum length. Therefore, it is theoretically possible to have an ISA Sequence Number that takes up more characters than the standard shows. One must count element separators to parse for the sub-element separator and the segment terminator. Theoretically. Art Douglas Chief Consultant Blackwater Network 877-464-8915 -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of henkjanebbers Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 3:35 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [EDI-L] Another question about x12 separators/terminators How is dealt with different separators/terminators. I mean, when receiving I can receive any separators/terminators because the ISA tells me what separators/terminators are used. But when sending, can I expect that the receiver can also handle this. Or are **BIG RETAILERS** forcing certain seperators/terminators? (consequence would be party-dependant seperators/terminators) kind regards, Henk-Jan Ebbers ... Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Job postings are welcome, but for job postings or requests for work: <JOBS> IS REQUIRED in the subject line as a prefix. Yahoo! Groups Links ... Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Job postings are welcome, but for job postings or requests for work: <JOBS> IS REQUIRED in the subject line as a prefix. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
