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NEMA synced Apr 22, 2026

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  4. VRs

NEMA PS3.5 §6.2

Value Representations

DICOM's type system. Every attribute has a Value Representation (VR) that specifies its encoding — string shape, numeric format, binary layout, or structural (sequence). 34 VRs total.

String

  • AE Application Entity 16 chars
  • AS Age String 4 bytes
  • CS Code String 16 chars
  • LO Long String 64 chars
  • PN Person Name 64 chars per component group
  • SH Short String 16 chars
  • UC Unlimited Characters 2^32-2 bytes
  • UI Unique Identifier (UID) 64 chars
  • UR URI/URL 2^32-2 bytes

Binary

  • AT Attribute Tag 4 bytes

Date-time

  • DA Date 8 bytes
  • DT Date Time 26 chars
  • TM Time 14 chars

Numeric-string

  • DS Decimal String 16 chars
  • IS Integer String 12 chars

Numeric

  • FD Floating Point Double 8 bytes
  • FL Floating Point Single 4 bytes
  • SL Signed Long 4 bytes
  • SS Signed Short 2 bytes
  • SV Signed Very Long 8 bytes
  • UL Unsigned Long 4 bytes
  • US Unsigned Short 2 bytes
  • UV Unsigned Very Long 8 bytes

Text

  • LT Long Text 10,240 chars
  • ST Short Text 1,024 chars
  • UT Unlimited Text 2^32-2 bytes

Binary-stream

  • OB Other Byte 2^32-2 bytes
  • OD Other Double 2^32-8 bytes
  • OF Other Float 2^32-4 bytes
  • OL Other Long 2^32-4 bytes
  • OV Other Very Long 2^32-8 bytes
  • OW Other Word 2^32-2 bytes
  • UN Unknown any

Sequence

  • SQ Sequence of Items not applicable

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