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  • 1.  Trimming the flatfile fat

    Posted 05-06-2021 03:11 PM
    February 21, 2020 at 8:55 am
    Patrick McNeillie

    XML Team,

    Moving away from the flatfiles, woo hoo! But I keep looking for a line in the documentation stating the legacy flatfile fluff (padding, justification, etc) will be trimmed on… ?

    Our team uber excited to move past the current limited data types to the post-flatfile utopia of true data types.

    ( I'll buy dinner for whomever shares the epic tale of the SSDI codes like, "0.0-99.9, XX.0, XX.1, XX.2, XX.3, XX.4, XX.5, XX.6, XX.8, XX.9″… there's a story here!).

    Thanks XML team!
    Respectfully,
    Patrick

    February 21, 2020 at 12:31 pm
    Fabian Depry

    Hello Patrick!

    I totally share your excitement about the switch; it might be a painful transition for some, but at the end, it will allow many improvements to the process of transmitting NAACCR data; improvements that wound't be possible with a limited flat-line data model!

    Your point about missing information in the documentation is well taken, and we are going to see if we can make that clear.

    Technically the trimming and padding rules were only necessary to stay compatible with the flat-file format (although it's not completely true for the zero-padding rules). But since some software are currently relying on that information, it is unlikely those will be completely removed in the near future. They might be phased out during a longer period of time.