TDS properties for local element binary types

The TDS Format properties described here apply to:

Field Identification

Property Type Meaning
Tag String Specify the value that is used to identify the object in a message bit stream.

If the object is simple and the Data Element Separation property of the complex type or types in which the object is a child is Tagged Delimited, Tagged Fixed Length, or Tagged Encoded Length, this property must contain a non-empty value.

If the object is a complex element and the Data Element Separation property of its parent is Tagged Delimited, Tagged Fixed Length, or Tagged Encoded Length, the property can contain an empty value.

The value for this property must be unique for every element in the message set; that is, no two elements in the message set can contain the same value for this property.

Data Pattern String Specify the regular expression that is to be used by the parser to identify the data in the message to be assigned to the object. This property is used when the Data Element Separation method has been set to Use Data Pattern in the complex type. See Regular expression syntax for further details.
Repeating Element Delimiter String Specify the delimiter that is to be used between repeating elements.

This delimiter is used only when the element repeats and the Data Element Separation of the parent group or complex type is set to All Elements Delimited or Variable Length Elements Delimited.

A default value is provided if the above conditions are true as follows:

  • If the messaging standard is HL7, the mnemonic <HL7_RS> is used.
  • If the messaging standard is not HL7, and the maximum number of repeats is fixed, the delimiter of the parent group or complex type is used.

If none of the above rules are met, a default is not applied.

Physical representation

Property Type Meaning
Length Integer Specify the expected length of the object in characters (except in the case of binary objects, in which case the length value represents the length in bytes).

This property applies to simple objects and to complex elements with a base type.

If you give this property a value of 0, the Length Reference property is checked for a value.

If you set the Data Element Separator property for the type to Fixed Length or Fixed Length AL3, either this property, or the Length Reference property, must contain a value that is not 0 or NULL.

Regardless of the value of the Data Element Separator property, either the Length or Length Reference property must be set.

Length Reference Enumerated type Specify the identifier of a sibling Integer object, the value of which dictates the length of the object in question. The sibling object must be defined before the current object within the message structure.

For information about reordering elements, see Reordering objects.

Related concepts
Message modeling
The message model
TDS format: Relationship to the logical model
Related tasks
Developing message models
Working with message model objects
Related reference
Message model reference information
Message model object properties
Logical properties for message model objects
Custom Wire Format physical properties for message model objects
XML wire format physical properties for message model objects
TDS format physical properties for message model objects
Documentation properties for all message set objects
Message model object properties by object
Additional MRM domain information