maximum length
c
h
Alphabetic letters (upper case) and digits
only
Hexadecimal letters A through F (upper
case) and digits only
Nn! Fixed
length x Any character of the permitted character set
upper and lower case
y Any character of the EDIFACT level A
character set as defined in ISO 9735
upper case only
z Any character as defined by the Information
Service
nn*nn
Maximum number of
lines times
maximum line length
e Blank space
d Decimal format
Examples
2n
= up to 2 digits
3!a
= always 3 letters upper case only
4*35x
= up to 4 lines of up to 35 characters each
16-64h
= at least 16 and up to 64 hexadecimal digits
2.
Use of square brackets [ ] around the format of a particular subfield indicates
that the subfield is optional within that field. For example, in the following figure,
format of option S is specified as :4!c/[8c]/4!c/2!a/30x. Here, the format
corresponding to the sub-field Data Source Scheme is given as [8c], making the
sub-field optional.