00692

Character Set

2015-07-13
Definition: This field contains the character set for the entire message. Refer to HL7 Table 0211 - Alternate Character Sets in Chapter 2C, Code Tables, for valid values.

An HL7 message uses field MSH-18 Character Set to specify the character set(s) in use. Valid values for this field are specified in HL7 Table 0211 - Alternate Character Sets. MSH-18 Character Set may be left blank, or may contain one or more values delimited by the repetition separator. If the field is left blank, the character set in use is understood to be the 7-bit ASCII set, decimal 0 through decimal 127 (hex 00 through hex 7F). This default value may also be explicitly specified as ASCII.

Length5-15
21 values
8859/1The printable characters from the ISO 8859/1 Character set
8859/2The printable characters from the ISO 8859/2 Character set
8859/3The printable characters from the ISO 8859/3 Character set
8859/4The printable characters from the ISO 8859/4 Character set
8859/5The printable characters from the ISO 8859/5 Character set
8859/6The printable characters from the ISO 8859/6 Character set
8859/7The printable characters from the ISO 8859/7 Character set
8859/8The printable characters from the ISO 8859/8 Character set
8859/9The printable characters from the ISO 8859/9 Character set
8859/15The printable characters from the ISO 8859/15 (Latin-15)
ASCIIThe printable 7-bit ASCII character set.((This is the default if this field is omitted))
BIG-5Code for Taiwanese Character Set (BIG-5)(Does not need an escape sequence. BIG-5 does not need an escape sequence. ASCII is a 7 bit character set, which means that the top bit of the byte is “0”. The parser knows that when the top bit of the byte is “0”, the character set is ASCII. When it is “1”, the following bytes should be handled as 2 bytes (or more). No escape technique is needed. However, since some servers do not correctly interpret when they receive a top bit “1”, it is advised, in internet RFC, to not use these kind of non-safe non-escape extension.)
CNS 11643-1992Code for Taiwanese Character Set (CNS 11643-1992)(Does not need an escape sequence.)
GB 18030-2000Code for Chinese Character Set (GB 18030-2000)(Does not need an escape sequence.)
ISO IR6ASCII graphic character set consisting of 94 characters.(http://www.itscj.ipsj.or.jp/ISO-IR/006.pdf)
ISO IR14Code for Information Exchange (one byte)(JIS X 0201-1976).(Note that the code contains a space, i.e., "ISO IR14".)
ISO IR87Code for the Japanese Graphic Character set for information interchange (JIS X 0208-1990),(Note that the code contains a space, i.e., “ISO IR87”. The JIS X 0208 needs an escape sequence. In Japan, the escape technique is ISO 2022. From basic ASCII, escape sequence “escape” $ B (in HEX, 1B 24 42) lets the parser know that following bytes should be handled 2-byte wise. Back to ASCII is 1B 28 42.)
ISO IR159Code of the supplementary Japanese Graphic Character set for information interchange (JIS X 0212-1990).(Note that the code contains a space, i.e., "ISO IR159".)
KS X 1001Code for Korean Character Set (KS X 1001)
UNICODEThe world wide character standard from ISO/IEC 10646-1-1993(Deprecated. Retained for backward compatibility only as v 2.5. Replaced by specific Unicode encoding codes.)
UNICODE UTF-8UCS Transformation Format, 8-bit form(UTF-8 is a variable-length encoding, each code value is represented by 1,2 or 3 bytes, depending on the code value. 7 bit ASCII is a proper subset of UTF-8. Note that the code contains a space before UTF but not before and after the hyphen. Since UTF-8 represents the full UNICODE character set, the following restriction apply to its use: 1. UTF-8 must be the default encoding of the message, UTF-8 cannot be specified as an additional character set in MSH-18 2. There are no other character sets allowed in a message where UTF-8 is the default encoding in the message. In other words, UNICODE UTF-8 can only be specified as a single value in MSH-18 3. A message encoded in UTF-8 must not use a Byte Order Mark (BOM).)
IDCoded Value for HL7 Defined TablesPrimitive