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Understanding Sub-Field Delimiters

Sub-Field Delimiters

Sub-fields in a composite are delimited with a sub-field delimiter (^ in HL7). HL7 empty fields must still be represented with a place holder by outputting consecutive delimiter characters. For any sub-field that is empty, two subsequent delimiters will appear.

Consider the following example:

33 WEST BURTON COURT^^CHICAGO^IL^98052^USA

The above Patient Address field has six sub-fields:

Patient Address Field, Showing Six Sub-Fields

Since Field 2 - Other Designation is empty, it is represented by two consecutive delimiter characters.

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