HL7 translation question regarding building field

hcitcl>set x 16931

16931

hcitcl>set y 8251

8251

hcitcl>set totalChars [expr [string length $x] + [string length $y]]

9

hcitcl>set padCnt [expr 15 – $totalChars]

6

hcitcl>set padValue [replicate 0 $padCnt]

000000

hcitcl>set newValue $x$padValue$y

169310000008251

Assuming input using Xlate:

Source

=16831

pid:3.0

These 2 lines would go into preproc:

set total_input_length [expr [string length [lindex $xlateInVals 0]] +[string length [lindex $xlateInVals 1]]]

set xlateOutVals “[lindex $xlateInVals 0][string repeat 0 [expr 15 – $total_input_length]][lindex $xlateInVals 1]”

Destination

169310000008251

This is just one of many ways to accomplish this….

Based on your post I am assuming that the 16391 is based in some way on the value in PID.3.  Is that accurate?

How about this, derive the second number in whatever way that you need to (lets call that X).  Pad that value to the right with either a replicate command as Steve describes or with a format command.  Then add the value of the first number to it:

set outstring [ format “%-015s” 16931 ]

set outstring [ expr $outstring + 8251 ]

As Keith points out, there are a myriad of different ways to do this, it is just a matter of choosing the one that you like the best.

Format is your friend. You can also include your hard-coded value inside the format-string:

You want to pad the incoming value with zeros to a total of 10 characters and then tack the “16931” onto the front of it giving you your total of 15. It is easier if you think of this as manipulating strings of characters rather than numeric values.