As you have seen in the previous sections, certain special characters separate one composite in a segment from another, or separate one sub-composite from another. These special characters are known as delimiter characters.
This section describes delimiter characters in more detail, how to use escape characters to include a delimiter character as part of a composite, and how to define new HL7 delimiter characters.
HL7 Delimiter Characters
The following table lists the default delimiter characters used in HL7:
| Character | Purpose |
|---|---|
| 0x0D | Marks the end of each segment. |
| | | Composite delimiter. |
| ^ | Sub-composite delimiter. |
| & | Sub-sub-composite delimiter. |
| ~ | Separates repeating fields. |
| \ | Escape character. |
