GS1 Data Example

Application Identifiers are generally used in scenarios where two or more data elements must be represented together. In most scenarios, one of the data elements will be a GS1 key such as a GTIN. The example below illustrates a trade item identifier. It identifies a product (GTIN), a manufactured batch of the that product (LOT) and an individual manufactured item (SERIAL). It also records the batch expiry date.

010506091751001110628S93R␝17241000218898847482518646

The following AIs are used to identify each data element:

01 - GTIN (GTIN-14)
10 - LOT (batch number)
17 - EXPIRY (yymmdd)
21 - SERIAL

We can see this more clearly by breaking down the string into the four AI/Value elements:

01 05060917510011 10 628S93R ␝ 17 241000 21 8898847482518646

␝ represents the Group Separator character "ASCII 29" which is used as a delimiter between AI/Value pairs. The ␝ character is used just once in the data representation to separate the batch number from the expiry date. This is because of the following rules:

• ␝ is always used to delimit AI/Value pairs UNLESS the AI is one of a limited number of fixed-width AIs specified by GS1. This includes GTINs and Expiry dates. The ␝ character should not be used to delimit these AI/Value pairs.

• The final ␝ (any ␝ that would be otherwise required after the last AI/Value pair) is omitted.

␝ is often represents a ^] in printed examples. This follows a convention for representation of ASCII control characters derived from Microsoft DOS.