Standards Documentation |
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The EDI standard is published in a tab-separated book. Each tab deals with a specific part of the ANSI X12 standard - there's a separate tab for information about transaction sets, a subsequent tab dealing with the segments that make up transactions sets, and a tab that deals with the individual data elements.
Transaction Set Tables: Information about documents or transaction sets is contained in the Transaction Set Tables. This is the highest level of the ANSI X12 standard. The Transaction Set Tables list all of the allowable segments for each transaction set. It also tells you where to go in the Segment Directory to look up a specific segment.
Segment Directory: The next level is the Segment Directory, which defines the types of segments for the specified transaction set and the allowable data elements. This gives information about the elements needed in the segments. It tells you where you need to go in the third part of the documentation, the Data Element Dictionary.
Data Element Dictionary: The third level of the ANSI X12 standard
is the Data Element Dictionary. It defines each data element found in the
Segment Directory.