This data type is derived from the string data type by allowing the addition of embedded formatting instructions. These instructions are limited to those that are intrinsic and independent of the circumstances under which the field is being used. The actual instructions and their representation are described later in this chapter. The FT field is of arbitrary length (up to 64k) and may contain formatting commands enclosed in escape characters. Example:
HL7 v2
|\.sp\(skip one vertical line)|Primitive Type
This is a primitive data type with no internal structure. It represents a single value.