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Delimiter Escape Sequences

If an HL7 message contains one of the special delimiter characters as part of its message content, you can use a special escape sequence to specify the delimiter character. This ensures that any application that processes HL7 messages can always distinguish between a delimiter character and a character that is part of the message text.

Each delimiter character has its own escape sequence. This escape sequence consists of the \ character followed by a unique capital letter, followed by \. The following table lists the delimiter characters and their equivalent escape sequences:

Character Escape Sequence
& \T\
^ \S\
| \F\
~ \R\
\ \E\
Hexadecimal character xx \Xxx..\

In the \Xxx\ escape sequence, xx is a two-digit hexadecimal number representing the ASCII value of a character.

Note that the \ escape character has its own escape sequence.

5 Ways To Speed Up HL7 Integration

In addition to the above escape sequences, some additional special escape sequences are defined. These escape sequences are left unchanged.

Sequence/Type Format
Highlighting Sequences
  • \H\
  • \N\
Formatting Sequences (starting with a period)
  • \.br\
  • \.fi\
  • \.nf\
  • \.sp\
  • \.in\
  • \.ti\
  • \.sk\
  • \.ce\
Character Set Codes
  • \Cxxyy\ (single-byte)
  • \Mxxyy\, \Mxxyyzz\ (multi-byte)

These escape sequences enable you to include formatting information as part of a segment composite.

5 Ways To Speed Up HL7 Integration

May 13, 2008iNTERFACEWARE
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Related

Determining the HL7 Message TypeHL7 Delimiter Characters
May 13, 2008 HL7 Information
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