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RE: Quantity Element in EDIFACT Version D99B
It occurred to me that somebody may want to transmit a very large number
using exponential notation, ie: 1.045236E24. That would require an
alphanumeric element. Or maybe some ancient Romans would order XXXVI Krispy
Kreme doughnuts ;)
Art Douglas
-----Original Message-----
From: William J. Kammerer [mailto:
Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2002 7:10 AM
To: EDI-L Mailing List
Subject: Re: [EDI-L] Quantity Element in EDIFACT Version D99B
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
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