Do the trailing empty elements in a Segment need to include their element separators? As an example the B4 04 Date and B4 03 Status Code are both optional elements in B4 -315 Beginning segment.
Data provided example: B4***CT*20100920~c
So are all of the following valid
B4***CT~
B4**~
Or must it be:
B4****~
In response to the question, Do the trailing empty elements in a Segment need to include their element separators? The standard is very clear with regard to trailing data element separators. Per section 3.7 the trailing data element separators shall be suppressed. Applying this to your examples result in the following:
Example B4***CT~ is correct Example B4**~ is not correct, based on the standard B4 segment definition. Example B4****~ is not correct, based on the standard B4 segment definition.
FURTHER DISCUSSION
In preparing this Request for Interpretation, the ASC X12C (Communication & Controls) Subcommittee made the following observation:
In your RFI it is mentioned searching the publically available specs. The documents which define the X12 control standards are located in the following documents which are available from the X12 secretariat.
X12.6 – Application Control Structure
X12.5 – Interchange Control Structures