Data element separation defines how
a TDS message is to be parsed.
Data element separation defines which method of identifying data elements
is to be used and how the data elements are constructed. The different methods
vary from full flexibility to fixed format, depending on how they are defined.
The four main types of data element separation are:
- Fixed length types
- Fixed length types are dependent on each element having a length. See TDS format: Fixed length separation types.
- Tagged separation types
- Tagged separation types are dependent on each element having tag prefix
to identify it. See TDS format: Tagged separation types.
- Delimited separation types
- Delimited separation types use delimiters to identify the end of one data
elements and the beginning of the next. See TDS format: Delimited separation types.
- Data pattern types
- Data pattern types use a regular expression to identify each element.
See TDS format: Data pattern separation types.
There is a fifth category, which is different from the four described above:
- Undefined separation types
- Undefined separation types contain no data elements. They are applicable
to message content types (that is, embedded messages) only and should not be used for anything else. They use none of
the TDS type-specific parameters other than Data Element Separation. See Multipart messages.