|
[EDI-L Mailing List Archive Home]
[Message List]
[Reply To This Message]
Re: Quantity Element in EDIFACT Version D99B
In an SAP IDOC (and other types of output) the
negative quantity fields have a trailing sign(7.62-).
A numeric field will not accept a trailing sign. By
changing to an alphanumeric the value can be sent
without converting to a leading sign.
Cheers,
Stanley Pool
--- "William J. Kammerer" <
wrote:
> Ron:
>
> "Why is UN/EDIFACT D.E. 6060 Quantity is defined as
> an alphanumeric
> character string as opposed to a numeric (which can
> accommodate 'real'
> or 'decimal' numbers)?"
>
> This one has puzzled me, also, for some time over 2
> years now - though I
> don't worry about it nearly as often now that I'm
> not in the EDI
> productivity tools and compliance analysis business.
> It's not obvious
> to me what an alphanumeric quantity would look like:
> - "Three French
> Hens" or "Eight Maids A-milking"? Or is that a Unit
> of Measure? I was
> sure it wasn't an accident because the description
> said "Alphanumeric
> representation of a quantity" which means that the
> change from "n" to
> "an" element data type was not a slip of the
> fingers.
>
> But this really never bothered me enough to exert
> any effort to find out
> just why D.E. 6060 is defined as alphanumeric. But
> since I wanted to
> keep in touch with my old friends from UN/EDIFACT, I
> decided I would
> pose the query to Margaret Pemberton, Chair of T1
> Technical Assessment
> within the UN/EDIFACT EWG. She had complete records
> of the UN/EDIFACT
> Data Maintenance Requests (DMRs) from late 1998
> which effected the
> change.
>
> Unfortunately, the justification for changing D.E.
> 6060 was merely
> "Business requirements allow for the transmission of
> quantity
> information in either a numeric or alphanumeric
> form." The submitter of
> the DMR (Dun & Bradstreet) didn't show any examples
> of whatever they
> meant. So since the change was motivated by
> requirements in the
> Business Credit Report message (BUSCRD), maybe D&B
> wanted some way to
> say the total number of employees is "23 (exempt),
> 320 (non-exempt)" or
> that the total floor space in a particular building
> was "120 X 60" - I'm
> only guessing.
>
> Perhaps if you repeat the mantra "it's a business
> requirement," any kind
> of crap can get into the standard; I've certainly
> seen that happen in
> ANSI ASC X12. Examples like those I showed could
> have been easily
> accommodated with MEA segments, giving the linear
> dimensions of floor
> space; the employee breakdown could have been made
> more granular
> perhaps with the addition of Quantity type code
> qualifiers.
>
> XML doesn't help the matter, in case you were
> wondering.
>
> William J. Kammerer
> Novannet, LLC.
> Columbus, US-OH 43221-3859
> +1 (614) 487-0320
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ron Katz" <
> To: <
> Sent: Friday, 14 June, 2002 01:34 PM
> Subject: [EDI-L] Quantity Element in EDIFACT Version
> D99B
>
> Can anyone explain why EDIFACT would change the
> quantity element found
> in the 'QTY' segment of the D99B standards to
> Alphanumeric? I am
> referring to the Quantity composite, 1st element,
> 2nd composite (element
> 6060) in the "QTY" Segment. All previous versions
> define the element as
> a length of 15 and type numeric. Version D99B
> defines it as
> Alphanumeric with a max length of 35? I am very
> puzzled why EDIFACT
> would change a numeric element to alpha since this
> field would most
> likely be mapped to a numeric field. Any comments
> are appreciated.
>
> Ron Katz
> RK Consulting Inc.
> 401-334-2463
>
>
>
>
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
LAUNCH - Your Yahoo! Music Experience
http://launch.yahoo.com
|
 |
Subscribe in XML format
| RSS 2.0 |
|
| Atom 0.3 |
|
|
Cart
