• Chapter 1: Getting Started with Stylus Studio®
• Chapter 2: Editing and Querying XML
• Chapter 3: Converting Non-XML Files to XML
  • Introduction
  • DataDirect XML Converters
  • Custom XML Converters
  • The Custom XML Conversion Definition Editor
  • Parts of an Input File
  • Working with Regions
  • Working with Fields
  • Controlling XML Output
  • Creating a Custom XML Conversion Definition
  • Using Custom XML Conversion Definitions in Stylus Studio
  • Working with EDI Conversions
    • Supported EDI Dialects
    • Creating Custom EDI Message Types
    • Understanding Separator Characters
      • How Stylus Studio Sets Separator Characters
      • Setting Processing Instruction
      • Syntax
      • Ways to Specify Control Characters
      • Invalid Separator Characters
    • Validating XML from/to EDI
  • The Converter URL Scheme
  • Custom XML Conversion Definitions Properties Reference
• Chapter 4: Working with XSLT
• Chapter 5: Creating XSLT Using the XSLT Mapper
• Chapter 6: Debugging Stylesheets
• Chapter 7: Defining XML Schemas
• Chapter 8: Defining Document Type Definitions
• Chapter 9: Writing XPath Expressions
• Chapter 10: Working with XQuery in Stylus Studio
• Chapter 11: Composing Web Service Calls
• Chapter 12: Building XML Pipelines
• Chapter 13: Publishing XML Data
• Chapter 14: Integrating with Third-Party File Systems
• Chapter 15: Extending Stylus Studio
• Chapter 16: The Stylus Studio Java API
• Chapter 17: Stylus Studio GUI Reference

Home >Online Product Documentation >Table of Contents >Understanding Separator Characters

Understanding Separator Characters

An EDI file consists of tokens terminated by separators. Special characters are used to define separators and other symbols, like the decimal character. You can specify the characters used for the following EDI file items:

Values for some of these items are set explicitly in the EDI data stream. For example, in X12, the component separator is the value of the ISA16 field (the "I15: Component Element Separator"). In EDIFACT, separator values can be set using the contents of the UNA segment.

How Stylus Studio Sets Separator Characters

When writing XML to EDI, Stylus Studio overwrites separator values using a set of processing instructions (PIs) in the XML. As long as the character specified in the PI has not been emitted to the output stream, it can be changed. For example, the segment terminator can be changed using the PI only before the first segment is written to EDI.

Setting Processing Instruction

Stylus Studio uses the following naming convention and default values for XML processing instructions used to set values for separator characters:

If a PI is used to set the value for one separator (say, edi_A) to a default value being used by another separator (edi_B), a new value will be chosen for the edi_B separator unless one has already been specified.

URI switches are available for each of these processing instructions. See the DataDirect XML Converters documentation at http://www.xmlconverters.com/doc/. for more information.

Syntax

The syntax of the PI is just "<?" followed by the name, followed by a space, and then the new special character before a closing "?>" tag. Consider a few examples:

<?edi_segment \n?> 
<?edi_release \\?> 
<?edi_element $?> 
<?edi_component \x0001?> 
<?edi_decimal .?> 

Here is another example, showing PIs used in context. In this example, an X12 document needed to be written to meet the following requirements:

The two PIs and the Component Element Separator are shown in bold for clarity:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 
<?edi_segment \r?> 
<?edi_element *?> 
<X12> 
	<ISA> 
		<ISA01><!--I01: Authorization Information Qualifier-->00</ISA01> 
		<ISA02><!--I02: Authorization Information-->          </ISA02> 
		<ISA03><!--I03: Security Information Qualifier-->00</ISA03> 
		<ISA04><!--I04: Security Information-->          </ISA04> 
		<ISA05><!--I05: Interchange ID Qualifier-->01</ISA05> 
		<ISA06><!--I06: Interchange Sender ID-->1515151515     </ISA06> 
		<ISA07><!--I05: Interchange ID Qualifier-->01</ISA07> 
		<ISA08><!--I07: Interchange Receiver ID-->5151515151     </ISA08> 
		<ISA09><!--I08: Interchange Date-->041201<!--2004-12-01--></ISA09> 
		<ISA10><!--I09: Interchange Time-->1217</ISA10> 
		<ISA11><!--I65: Repetition Separator-->U</ISA11> 
		<ISA12><!--I11: Interchange Control Version-->00403</ISA12> 
		<ISA13><!--I12: Interchange Control Number-->000032123</ISA13> 
		<ISA14><!--I13: Acknowledgment Requested-->0</ISA14> 
		<ISA15><!--I14: Usage Indicator-->P</ISA15> 
		<ISA16><!--I15: Component Element Separator-->></ISA16> 
	</ISA> 
... 

If the segment terminator (edi_segment) is set to \r or \n, consider changing the default value for the Add linefeeds between segments on write property. Otherwise, the EDI output will have double endings. See the DataDirect XML Converters documentation for complete properties reference information: http://www.xmlconverters.com/doc/.

Ways to Specify Control Characters

In addition to literal characters, you can also specify control characters using the values in the following table. The values you set for these properties apply only when converting XML to EDI. Not all EDI dialects use all special characters. Finally, you must use unique values for each property you choose to set.

Invalid Separator Characters

You cannot use any of the following characters as EDI separators: