Sort contents of fields file

[Bill May]

Just wondering if anyone had a utility to sort the contents of the fields file into item number order whilst retaining the header info

Perhaps an enhancement to the HL7 GUI, namely to maintain the fields file in sorted order

Topic

[Charlie Bursell]

Bill:

I think what you are asking for could be easily done.  However, I think the reason you need it is to be able to map an HL7 field number to a segment offset.  There are better ways.  It just takes a few more seconds when doing the translation.

Instead of something like:

    {IN 0(0).PVI.00133}

in the translate copy. change the 00133 to #3

    {IN 0(0).PV1.#3 }

In a translation a field offset number can be used in place of an HL7 field address anywhere.  That includes ITERATE statement, IF statements, and all.

It is more self documenting.  I don’t think a vendow will ever call to disuss PV1.00133 but he will call to discuss PV1.3.  In most cases you have to look up PV1.3 to find out wht it’s HL7 address is and then go look at the translation.  Ar eal pain.

[Bill May]

Charlie, Thanks

The question was motivated by a need to easily compare fields files across a number of sites, more a version control issue

I just write a script to sort the file

Cheers,

Bill

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