v2+ Vocabulary
0.3.0 - Working Draft to present the concept ideas (FO)

v2+ Vocabulary - Local Development build (v0.3.0) built by the FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) Build Tools. See the Directory of published versions

CodeSystem: Alternate Character Sets (2.9 - 1.4.1) (Experimental)

Official URL: http://terminology.hl7.org/v2plusvocab/CodeSystem/alternateCharacterSetsV141 Version: 1.4.1
Active as of 2025-08-05 Computable Name: AlternateCharacterSetsV141
Other Identifiers: OID:2.16.840.1.113883.18.116

Copyright/Legal: HL7 Inc., 2024

HL7-defined code system of concepts used to specify the character set(s) in use. Includes both single-byte and double-byte characters sets, and used in Version 2.x messaging in the MSH segment.

This Code system is referenced in the content logical definition of the following value sets:

Properties

This code system defines the following properties for its concepts

NameCodeURITypeDescription
version introduced versionIntroduced http://terminology.hl7.org/v2plusvocab/CodeSystem/Property#versionIntroduced string version when was this code introduced
version deprecated versionDeprecated http://terminology.hl7.org/v2plusvocab/CodeSystem/Property#versionDeprecated string version when was this code deprecated
status status http://hl7.org/fhir/concept-properties#status code A code that indicates the status of the concept. Typical values are active, experimental, deprecated, and retired
comment, to suppress IG-publisher warning, to be replaced with standard later comment http://terminology.hl7.org/v2plusvocab/CodeSystem/Property#comment string A string that provides additional detail pertinent to the use or understanding of the concept
usage usage http://terminology.hl7.org/v2plusvocab/CodeSystem/Property#usage string usage notes for this code
modified modified http://terminology.hl7.org/v2plusvocab/CodeSystem/Property#modified dateTime date of last modification

Concepts

This case-sensitive code system http://terminology.hl7.org/v2plusvocab/CodeSystem/alternateCharacterSetsV141 defines the following codes:

CodeDisplayDefinitionversion introducedstatuscomment, to suppress IG-publisher warning, to be replaced with standard laterusagemodified
8859/1 The printable characters from the ISO 8859/1 Character set The printable characters from the ISO 8859/1 Character set 2.3 2015-07-13
8859/15 The printable characters from the ISO 8859/15 (Latin-15) The printable characters from the ISO 8859/15 (Latin-15) 2.6 2015-07-13
8859/2 The printable characters from the ISO 8859/2 Character set The printable characters from the ISO 8859/2 Character set 2.3 2015-07-13
8859/3 The printable characters from the ISO 8859/3 Character set The printable characters from the ISO 8859/3 Character set 2.3 2015-07-13
8859/4 The printable characters from the ISO 8859/4 Character set The printable characters from the ISO 8859/4 Character set 2.3 2015-07-13
8859/5 The printable characters from the ISO 8859/5 Character set The printable characters from the ISO 8859/5 Character set 2.3 2015-07-13
8859/6 The printable characters from the ISO 8859/6 Character set The printable characters from the ISO 8859/6 Character set 2.3 2015-07-13
8859/7 The printable characters from the ISO 8859/7 Character set The printable characters from the ISO 8859/7 Character set 2.3 2015-07-13
8859/8 The printable characters from the ISO 8859/8 Character set The printable characters from the ISO 8859/8 Character set 2.3 2015-07-13
8859/9 The printable characters from the ISO 8859/9 Character set The printable characters from the ISO 8859/9 Character set 2.3 2015-07-13
ASCII The printable 7-bit ASCII character set The printable 7-bit ASCII character set 2.3 This is the default if this field is omitted 2015-07-13
BIG-5 Code for Taiwanese Character Set (BIG-5) Code for Taiwanese Character Set (BIG-5) 2.5 Does not need an escape sequence. BIG-5 does not need an escape sequence. ASCII is a 7 bit character set, which means that the top bit of the byte is “0”. The parser knows that when the top bit of the byte is “0”, the character set is ASCII. When it is “1”, the following bytes should be handled as 2 bytes (or more). No escape technique is needed. However, since some servers do not correctly interpret when they receive a top bit “1”, it is advised, in internet RFC, to not use these kind of non-safe non-escape extension. 2015-07-13
CNS 11643-1992 Code for Taiwanese Character Set (CNS 11643-1992) Code for Taiwanese Character Set (CNS 11643-1992) 2.5 Does not need an escape sequence. 2015-07-13
GB 18030-2000 Code for Chinese Character Set (GB 18030-2000) Code for Chinese Character Set (GB 18030-2000) 2.5 Does not need an escape sequence. 2015-07-13
ISO IR14 Code for Information Exchange (one byte)(JIS X 0201-1976). Code for Information Exchange (one byte)(JIS X 0201-1976). 2.3.1 Note that the code contains a space, i.e., "ISO IR14". 2015-07-13
ISO IR159 Code of the supplementary Japanese Graphic Character set for information interchange (JIS X 0212-1990). Code of the supplementary Japanese Graphic Character set for information interchange (JIS X 0212-1990). 2.3.1 Note that the code contains a space, i.e., "ISO IR159". 2015-07-13
ISO IR6 ASCII graphic character set consisting of 94 characters. ASCII graphic character set consisting of 94 characters. 2.7 http://www.itscj.ipsj.or.jp/ISO-IR/006.pdf 2015-07-13
ISO IR87 Code for the Japanese Graphic Character set for information interchange (JIS X 0208-1990), Code for the Japanese Graphic Character set for information interchange (JIS X 0208-1990), 2.3.1 Note that the code contains a space, i.e., “ISO IR87”. The JIS X 0208 needs an escape sequence. In Japan, the escape technique is ISO 2022. From basic ASCII, escape sequence “escape” $ B (in HEX, 1B 24 42) lets the parser know that following bytes should be handled 2-byte wise. Back to ASCII is 1B 28 42. 2015-07-13
JAS2020 A subset of ISO2020 used for most Kanjii transmissions A subset of ISO2020 used for most Kanjii transmissions 2.3 2025-07-30
JIS X 0202 ISO 2022 with escape sequences for Kanjii ISO 2022 with escape sequences for Kanjii 2.3 2025-07-30
KS X 1001 Code for Korean Character Set (KS X 1001) Code for Korean Character Set (KS X 1001) 2.5 2015-07-13
UNICODE The world wide character standard from ISO/IEC 10646-1-1993 The world wide character standard from ISO/IEC 10646-1-1993 2.3 Deprecated. Retained for backward compatibility only as v 2.5. Replaced by specific Unicode encoding codes. Available from The Unicode Consortium, P.O. Box 700519, San Jose, CA 95170-0519. See http://www.unicode.org/unicode/consortium/consort.html 2015-07-13
UNICODE UTF-16 UCS Transformation Format, 16-bit form UCS Transformation Format, 16-bit form 2.5 inactive UTF-16 is identical to ISO/IEC 10646 UCS-2. Note that the code contains a space before UTF but not before and after the hyphen. 2023-08-10
UNICODE UTF-32 UCS Transformation Format, 32-bit form UCS Transformation Format, 32-bit form 2.5 inactive UTF-32 is defined by Unicode Technical Report #19, and is an officially recognized encoding as of Unicode Version 3.1. UTF-32 is a proper subset of ISO/IEC 10646 UCS-4. Note that the code contains a space before UTF but not before and after the hyphen. 2023-08-10
UNICODE UTF-8 UCS Transformation Format, 8-bit form UCS Transformation Format, 8-bit form 2.5 UTF-8 is a variable-length encoding, each code value is represented by 1,2 or 3 bytes, depending on the code value. 7 bit ASCII is a proper subset of UTF-8. Note that the code contains a space before UTF but not before and after the hyphen. Since UTF-8 represents the full UNICODE character set, the following restriction apply to its use: 1. UTF-8 must be the default encoding of the message, UTF-8 cannot be specified as an additional character set in MSH-18 2. There are no other character sets allowed in a message where UTF-8 is the default encoding in the message. In other words, UNICODE UTF-8 can only be specified as a single value in MSH-18 3. A message encoded in UTF-8 must not use a Byte Order Mark (BOM). 2015-07-13