Value Representation

OL Other Long

Category
binary-stream
Max Length
2^32-4 bytes
Fixed Length
No
Source
PS3.5 §6.2

Definition

A string of 32-bit words where the encoding of the contents is specified by the negotiated Transfer Syntax. OL is a VR that requires byte swapping within each 32-bit word when changing byte ordering.

Attributes using OL

7 DICOM attributes declare this VR.

Working with OL in integration code

VR-aware transformations are where most DICOM integration bugs hide — truncating a PN's 5-component structure, misaligning OB padding, or dropping leading zeros on IS. Saga IT builds production DICOM pipelines that respect VR semantics across Mirth Connect transformers, DIMSE gateways, and cloud DICOM services.