Below is your guide to EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) field limitations, including character quantity and special character usage.
Related Reading: Explaining EDI – 200 Transaction Codes
It is best practice to avoid commas, pipes, asterisks, and back or forward slashes. These are often used in EDI as segment or line terminators and can cause issues with mapping. As we move away from the use of CSV files towards other EDI translation options, the restrictions on data are diminishing but, for now, avoid using the following: * % ? . * \ | /:
Additionally, avoid using other special characters, such as letters with accents. For example, avoid “ç” or “Ä” or “é”, etc. Other special characters, such as an em dash, should be avoided as well.
New to EDI? Check out our post: What is EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)?
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