4 ms·

> Are there unicode characters specifically for delimiters? We could use the HL7 pipe ‘|’ and all enjoy that hell.

chaps 3y ago
My worst nightmare was a semicolon-delimited file. Where one of the columns had hand-typed street names - without quotes.. so "WELLS" was often "WE;;S". Since it was the only column like that, the # of columns to the left of the annoying column and the # on the right would always stay the same. So it was pretty easy to clean.
doctor_eval 3y ago
It’s been years since I last worked with HL7. Isn’t there also ^ and ~ to deal with? Hell indeed.
- deathanatos 3y ago
  Yes, there is. Multi-dimensional CSV?
- lostlogin 3y ago
  There is the white space bs too. Sometimes it matters, sometimes it doesn’t. What type of white space is it? Seriously rough.
- alexvoda 3y ago
  Isn't that what HL7 stands for? Hell Layer 7 as in the seventh circle of hell.
deathanatos 3y ago
God, please no. For those unfamiliar with the atrocity that is HL7v2, the format is essentially CSV, but with the record separator set to a lone CR, and the field separator usually set to |. Usually, because the format lets the consumer of the format redefine it, for whatever reasons. (The first use of the field separator it determines whatever character it will be. Thankfully, the first use is in a fixed spot, so it's determinable, but still. Oh, but we don't know the character encoding until like the 18th field in … and it doesn't necessarily have to be an ASCII superset. So I have no idea what an HL7v2 message in a non-ASCII superset even looks like, or how a parser is even supposed to reasonably parse such a thing. I presume attempt a decoding in all possible decodings, and then see which one matches the embedded character set, and pray nobody can create a polyglot?) There's also further separators, delimiting within a field. It also has its own escape sequences, to deal with the above. … and it is what carries an unfortunate amount of medical data, and is generally how providers interoperate, despite the existence of more civilized standards like FHIR
- deathanatos 3y ago
  I've unfortunately had to bless my brain with much more of this standard this week, for some reason. Did I mention that subcomponents (if you look at it like a CSV, cells are further subdivided into components & subcomponents, so subcomponents are sort of where we hit "cell text", if you want to keep going with that broken analogy) — contain escape sequences, so that you can have things like the field separator. Normal stuff, so far. The escape sequences also include highlighting, binary blobs, and a subset of roff.

My worst nightmare was a semicolon-delimited file. Where one of the columns had hand-typed street names - without quotes.. so "WELLS" was often "WE;;S". Since it was the only column like that, the # of columns to the left of the annoying column and the # on the right would always stay the same. So it was pretty easy to clean.

doctor_eval 3y ago

It’s been years since I last worked with HL7. Isn’t there also ^ and ~ to deal with? Hell indeed.

deathanatos 3y ago
Yes, there is. Multi-dimensional CSV?
lostlogin 3y ago
There is the white space bs too. Sometimes it matters, sometimes it doesn’t. What type of white space is it? Seriously rough.
alexvoda 3y ago
Isn't that what HL7 stands for? Hell Layer 7 as in the seventh circle of hell.

deathanatos 3y ago

God, please no. For those unfamiliar with the atrocity that is HL7v2, the format is essentially CSV, but with the record separator set to a lone CR, and the field separator usually set to |. Usually, because the format lets the consumer of the format redefine it, for whatever reasons. (The first use of the field separator it determines whatever character it will be. Thankfully, the first use is in a fixed spot, so it's determinable, but still. Oh, but we don't know the character encoding until like the 18th field in … and it doesn't necessarily have to be an ASCII superset. So I have no idea what an HL7v2 message in a non-ASCII superset even looks like, or how a parser is even supposed to reasonably parse such a thing. I presume attempt a decoding in all possible decodings, and then see which one matches the embedded character set, and pray nobody can create a polyglot?) There's also further separators, delimiting within a field. It also has its own escape sequences, to deal with the above. … and it is what carries an unfortunate amount of medical data, and is generally how providers interoperate, despite the existence of more civilized standards like FHIR

deathanatos 3y ago
I've unfortunately had to bless my brain with much more of this standard this week, for some reason. Did I mention that subcomponents (if you look at it like a CSV, cells are further subdivided into components & subcomponents, so subcomponents are sort of where we hit "cell text", if you want to keep going with that broken analogy) — contain escape sequences, so that you can have things like the field separator. Normal stuff, so far. The escape sequences also include highlighting, binary blobs, and a subset of roff.