The Usage Guideline Editor allows the formalization of a field/element format as an MT Format. The MT format language is defined by Swift. It describes how a field is structure by specifying :
- which type of characters can be used in that field
- what are the restrictions on the length of the field (i.e. how many times each type of character can appear and in which order)
Here is a simplified definition of those two attributes:
| Types of characters allowed | |
|---|---|
| n | numeric digits (0 to 9) only |
| a | alphabetic letters (A through Z), upper case only |
| c | alphabetic letters (upper case) and digits only |
| h | hexadecimal letters A through F (upper case) and digits only |
| x | any character of the X permitted set, upper and lower case allowed |
| 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 |
| e | blank space |
| d | decimals |
| Restrictions on Length | |
|---|---|
| nn | maximum length (minimum is 1) |
| nn..nn | minimum and maximum length |
| nn! | fixed length |
| nn*nn | maximum number of lines times maximum line length |
Examples
2n : up to 2 digits
3!a : exactly 3 uppercase letters
4*35x : up to 4 lines of up to 35 characters each
16..64h : at least 16 and up to 64 hexadecimal digits
