ANSI X9.93-2-2004 pdf download Financial transaction messages – Electronic benefits transfer (EBT) – Part 1 : Messages
The message structure does not preclude the use of additional data elements in a message as required for national or private use. 5.3.1 Primitive data elements A primitive data element is a data element where the content has no further part or sub-elements, e.g., Action code.
5.3.2 Constructed data element A constructed data element is a data element where the content consists of a fixed number of sub-elements, all of which shall be prsent, e.g., Card acceptor name/location. If there is no data for a particular sub-element it shall contain the relevant default values, e.g., blank or zeroes., etc. In some cases the structure of a constructed data element allows for a number of repetitions of the fixed structure e.g., Amount, addtiional. Although the sub-elements of each repetition are fixed they may not always be sent, e.g., the number of repetitions is optional within the limits set. Where a repetition is sent it shall contain all the defined sub-elements.
5.3.3 Composite data element A composite data element is a data element where the content consists of a large number of sub-elements. Most of these sub-elements fall into natural categories, e.g., food stamp data, benefits data, etc. In practice any one transaction is likely to require data from only one, or at most a limited number, of these categories. In order to identify these categories, the concept of a “dataset” has been defined. All the sub-elements that can be included in a particular composite data element are therefore divided into a number of sets of related data (a dataset), and each dataset is given a “dataset identifier”.
The sturcture of a dataset is based on the message structure defined in this standard and consists of a second level of bit map (dataset bit map) which indicates which sub-elements are present in a particular dataset. In addtion, provision is made for identifying sub-elements using the TLV (tag-length-value) method as specified in ISO 8825 an an alternative to using the second level bit map.
6 Data elements
6.1 Data element directory All data elements identified in this standard are listed in alphabetical order in Table 2 and in numeric order by message bit map in Annex A. The primary bit map position (e.g., 3 for Processing code data element) is indicated in the “Bit” column. If the named item is a sub-element, the sub-element position within the data element is indicated. For example, “3-2” for sub-element Account type indicates it is the second sub-element of the data element, Processing code. Codes under the control of the ISO 8583 RMMG and the ANSI X9A1 1 working group are listed in Annex B and referenced in the “notes” column in Table 2. Codes with a fixed number of possible values (e.g., Y or N