Please keep in mind that there's cut and there's http://www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/d331.htm
Here's the cut which I think Chris was referring to: cut ' '&$: :([: -.&a: <;._2@,~) That verb actually uses http://www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/d331.htm but it's predefined to break on a specific character (which defaults to ' ' but can be specified as the left argument). cut 'this is a test' +----+--+-+----+ |this|is|a|test| +----+--+-+----+ 't' cut 'this is a test' +---------+--+ |his is a |es| +---------+--+ I hope this helps, -- Raul On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 2:31 PM, George Dallas <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Chris, thank you for the reply. I'll start studying J's cut. It looks > like it'll require some hard studying from what I see in the dictionary > entry for cut (pasted below). > > Regards, > George > > *Cut *m;.n u;.n _ 1/2 _ > > x u;.0 y applies u to a rectangle or cuboid of y with one vertex at the > point in y indexed by v=:0{x , and with the opposite vertex determined as > follows: the dimension is |1{x , but the rectangle extends *back* from v along > any axis j for which the index j{v is negative. Finally, the order of the > selected items is reversed along each axis k for which k{1{x is negative. If > xis a vector, it is treated as the matrix 0,:x . > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > chris burke cburke at jsoftware.com > <programming%40forums.jsoftware.com?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BJprogramming%5D%20Parsing%20EDI%20data%20and%20converting%20them%20into%20a%0A%20database%20format&In-Reply-To=%3CCAAK_udWVCzatMug3QR7JqkaN03BCJ3Hy6d-Xuh1hGx2ukEFisA%40mail.gmail.com%3E> > *Fri Nov 13 18:53:56 UTC 2015* > > I did this some years ago and found that J can parse any given EDI format > very efficiently, using cut to chop up the strings. You might need > different functions for specific EDI formats, rather than a single function > to parse arbitrary EDI. > > > On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 12:36 PM, George Dallas <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Hi Joe, thank you for your reply. I am indeed thinking about a subset of X12 >> messages and specifically 20 types of utility exchanges with power >> suppliers, found on the link here: >> https://www.ameren.com/business-partners/cpwg/illinois-edi-implementation-guide. >> >> The x12parser you mentioned is a good and extensive project and with a >> little work it might provide for what I need, but it's the verbosity of C# >> used there that drives me towards thinking of a cleaner version that >> possibly could be implemented in J. >> >> I'm wondering if given any specification, say the 997 you mentioned below, >> the essence of the problem of converting an edi message to a flat file in >> normalized form can be expressed concisely in J. If that were the case, I >> suspect it would scale better and be a much faster implementation. >> >> If I were to go down this route are there any J facilities you'd recommend >> for parsing and transforming text files? >> >> Thank you, >> >> George >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> >> On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 11:10 AM, George Dallas <george.dallas at gmail.com >> <http://jsoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/programming>> wrote: >> >* Hello, >> *>>* Has anyone had the chance to work with EDI data using J? >> * >> Hi George, I have not, but I spent a few minutes looking into it. >> >> >>* Of course there is a huge industry out there spun to deal with this >> *>* problem, but I was wondering if anyone have had to tackle the issue >> using J >> *>* and if you think it's a doable project for J. >> *> >> I think we would need a bit more information about what you see for >> the project. Are you interested in building a library in J capable of >> parsing and interpreting all the various types of X12 messages or do >> you just need to work with a subset? >> >> If you were working with a small subset then I would consider >> implementing just what is necessary to parse those messages. If it's >> many messages, then I would lean towards integrating with something >> that has already solved the problem. The spec sounds reasonably >> complex and to make use of the information, the definitions are >> required. >> >> Here's one possible implementation to work with: >> https://x12parser.codeplex.com/ >> >> Here's the 997 specification out of the nearly 1000 options >> https://x12parser.codeplex.com/SourceControl/latest#trunk/src/OopFactory.X12/Specifications/Ansi-997-4010Specification.xml >> >> >> On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 10:10 AM, George Dallas <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> Hello, >>> >>> Has anyone had the chance to work with EDI data using J? >>> >>> EDI messages are text files formatted for facilitating business to >>> business communications. If one has a sufficient large history of these >>> files and manage to insert them into a database, then querying the database >>> would give answers to many business questions regarding customers, costs >>> etc. >>> >>> The link and text pasted below I found it to be a concise description of >>> the problem. >>> >>> Of course there is a huge industry out there spun to deal with this >>> problem, but I was wondering if anyone have had to tackle the issue using J >>> and if you think it's a doable project for J. >>> >>> Regards, >>> George >>> >>> >>> >>> https://github.com/pstuteville/x12 >>> >>> == The problem >>> >>> X12 is a set of "standards" possessing all the elegance of an elephant >>> designed by committee, and quite literally so, see http://www.x12.org. >>> X12 defines rough syntax for specifying text messages, but each of >>> more than 300 specifications defines its own message structure. While >>> messages themselves are easy to parse with a simple tokenizer, their >>> semantics is heavily dependent on the domain. For example, this is >>> X12/997 message conveying "Functional Acknowledgment": >>> >>> ST*997*2878~AK1*HS*293328532~AK2*270*307272179~AK3*NM1*8*L1010_0*8~ >>> AK4*0:0*66*1~AK4*0:1*66*1~AK4*0:2*66*1~AK3*NM1*8*L1010_1*8~AK4*1:0* >>> 66*1~AK4*1:1*66*1~AK3*NM1*8*L1010_2*8~AK4*2:0*66*1~AK5*R*5~AK9*R*1* >>> 1*0~SE*8*2878~ >>> >>> I.e., X12 defines an alphabet and somewhat of a dictionary - not a >>> grammar or semantics for each particular data interchange >>> conversation. Because of many entrenched implementations and >>> government mandates, the X12 is not going to die anytime soon, >>> unfortunately. >>> >>> The message above can be easily represented in Ruby as a nested array: >>> >>> m = [ >>> ['ST', '997', '2878'], >>> ['AK1', 'HS', '293328532'], >>> ['AK2', '270', '307272179'], >>> ['AK3', 'NM1', '8', 'L1010_0', '8'], >>> ['AK4', '0:0', '66', '1'], >>> ['AK4', '0:1', '66', '1'], >>> ['AK4', '0:2', '66', '1'], >>> ['AK3', 'NM1', '8', 'L1010_1', '8'], >>> ['AK4', '1:0', '66', '1'], >>> ['AK4', '1:1', '66', '1'], >>> ['AK3', 'NM1', '8', 'L1010_2', '8'], >>> ['AK4', '2:0', '66', '1'], >>> ['AK5', 'R', '5'], >>> ['AK9', 'R', '1', '1', '0'], >>> ['SE', '8', '2878'], >>> ] >>> >>> but it will not help any since, say, segment 'AK4' is ambiguously >>> defined and its meaning not at all obvious until the message's >>> structure is interpreted and correct 'AK4' segment is found. >>> >>> == The solution >>> >>> === Message structure >>> >>> Each participant in EDI has to know the structure of the data coming >>> across the wire - X12 or no X12. The X12 structures are defined in >>> so-called Implementation Guides - thick books with all the data pieces >>> spelled out. There is no other choice, but to invent a >>> computer-readable definition language that will codify these >>> books. For familiarity sake we'll use XML. For example, the X12/997 >>> message can be defined as >>> >>> <Definition> >>> <Loop name="997"> >>> <Segment name="ST" min="1" max="1"/> >>> <Segment name="AK1" min="1" max="1"/> >>> <Loop name="L1000" max="999999" required="y"> >>> <Segment name="AK2" max="1" required="n"/> >>> <Loop name="L1010" max="999999" required="n"> >>> <Segment name="AK3" max="1" required="n"/> >>> <Segment name="AK4" max="99" required="n"/> >>> </Loop> >>> <Segment name="AK5" max="1" required="y"/> >>> </Loop> >>> <Segment name="AK9" max="1" required="y"/> >>> <Segment name="SE" max="1" required="y"/> >>> </Loop> >>> </Definition> >>> >>> Namely, the 997 is a 'loop' containing segments ST (only one), AK1 >>> (also only one), another loop L1000 (zero or many repeats), segments >>> AK9 and SE. The loop L1000 can contain a segment AK2 (optional) and >>> another loop L1010 (zero or many), and so on. >>> >>> The segments' structure can be further defined as, for example, >>> >>> <Segment name="AK2"> >>> <Field name="TransactionSetIdentifierCode" required="y" min="3" max="3" >>> validation="T143"/> >>> <Field name="TransactionSetControlNumber" required="y" min="4" >>> max="9"/> >>> </Segment> >>> >>> which defines a segment AK2 as having two fields: >>> TransactionSetIdentifierCode and TransactionSetControlNumber. The >>> field TransactionSetIdentifierCode is defined as having a type of >>> string (default), being required, having length of minimum 3 and >>> maximum 3 characters, and being validated against a table T143. The >>> validation table is defined as >>> >>> <Table name="T143"> >>> <Entry name="100" value="Insurance Plan Description"/> >>> <Entry name="101" value="Name and Address Lists"/> >>> ... >>> <Entry name="997" value="Functional Acknowledgment"/> >>> <Entry name="998" value="Set Cancellation"/> >>> </Table> >>> >>> with entries having just names and values. >>> >>> This message is fully flashed out in an example 'misc/997.xml' file, >>> copied from the ASC X12N 276/277 (004010X093) "Health Care >>> Claim Status Request and Response" National Electronic Data >>> Interchange Transaction Set Implementation Guide. >>> >>> Now expressions like >>> >>> message.L1000.L1010[1].AK4.DataElementReferenceNumber >>> >>> start making sense of sorts, overall X12's idiocy notwithstanding - it's >>> a field called 'DataElementReferenceNumber' of a first of possibly >>> many segments 'AK4' found in the second repeat of the loop 'L1010' >>> inside the enclosing loop 'L1000'. The meaning of the value '66' found >>> in this field is still in the eye of the beholder, but, at least its >>> location is clearly identified in the message. >>> >>> >>> >> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
