UNA Segment

The UNA segment defines the service characters used in the transmission. Service characters act as delimiters for the various syntax structures of a message.

You can use only one character as a delimiter for TIBCO BusinessConnect™ Container Edition - EDI Protocol powered by Instream®, EDIFACT protocol.

The following are the service characters:

• Component data element separator
• Data element separator
• Decimal separator
Note: XML standards do not allow for a comma to be used as a decimal separator. For TIBCO BusinessConnect™ Container Edition - EDI Protocol powered by Instream® this applies to the XML payloads sent for inbound EDIFACT documents.
• Release character
• Repetition separator
• Segment terminator

The UNA segment must be used if the default service characters, specified in Default Service Characters, are not used.

Default Service Characters

Name

Character

Functionality

Colon

:

Component data element separator

Plus sign

+

Data element separator

Period

.

Decimal notation

Question mark

?

Release character/Indicator

Asterix

*

Repetition separator, used only for Syntax 4 EDIFACT data

Apostrophe

’

Segment terminator

If the default service characters are used, use of the UNA segment is optional. When it is used, the UNA segment is displayed immediately before the interchange header segment.