Section title: Requests for Interpretation
RFI #
2669
Clarification on Section B.1.1.3.1.4 String
Description

Requesting clarification on the use and population of spaces. The following sentences seem to conflict with each other:
-Significant characters shall be left justified. Leading spaces are presumed to be significant character.
-Trailing spaces must be suppressed unless they are necessary to satisfy a minimum length.

Scenario

Our compliance tool allowed a value of (as an example) 0001111<space><space><space> in 2000C TRN03: 7 numeric characters followed by 3 spaces that satisfies the 10-character min/max length criteria.
Another downstream compliance tool has rejected it stating spaces should be left justified and instead reported as <space><space><space>0001111.
Please advise which scenario is correct. Thank you.

RFI Response

The first scenario where there are three trailing spaces is correct and should not be rejected. The spaces are to satisfy a minimum length, they are not significant characters.

DOCUMENT ID
005010X279