Trouble grabbing understanding data elements hL7

Question

I am having a brain freeze for some reason understanding an HL7 concept. And would appreciate some assistance. Basically I need to grab data from the 9th component of a PID 3 and I don't have a sample message.

Per the HL7 SPEC (for version 2.5.1 this PID-3 is of type CX and is composed of 10 components. PID-3.1.9 (9TH component of this field is of type CWE which according to the spec has 10 elements). Is this the same thing as a subcomponent?

If I have a field lets say PID-3.9 (meaning the 9th component of the third field of the pid segment) and I wanted to access/reference by name all the parts to that 9th component is this how it the hl7 message would look?

PID|1|||^^^^^^^^MIA&ATL&CVG&DFT&CUN&DTW&BWI&JFK^

Answer 1

First of all, I want to suggest that you use a HL7 2.x parser for message / field addressing. You can use HAPI Test Panel:

HAPI (pronounced "happy") is a Java-based HL7 2.x parser with support for traditional (ER7) and XML encoding. HL7 (www.hl7.org ) is a messaging standard for healthcare information systems.

You can reach and install HAPI Test Panel at http://hl7api.sourceforge.net/hapi-testpanel/install.html

Sample view of HAPI Test Panel and subcomponents of PID-3-9

With HAPI Test Panel you can see data types of components or subcomponents.

Here is the sample message for HL7 v2.5.1: You can find PID-3-9[1-9] in this message.

MSH|^~\&|NES|NINTENDO|TESTSYSTEM|TESTFACILITY|20010101000000||ADT^A04|Q123456789T123456789X123456|P|2.5.1
EVN|A04|20010101000000|||^KOOPA^BOWSER^^^^^^^CURRENT
PID|1||123456789^^^^^^^^PID3.9.1&PID3.9.2&PID3.9.3&PID3.9.4&PID3.9.5&PID3.9.6&PID3.9.7&PID3.9.8&PID3.9.9^^^^^|0123456789^AA^^JP|BROS^MARIO^^^^||19850101000000|M|||123 FAKE STREET^MARIO \T\ LUIGI BROS PLACE^TOADSTOOL KINGDOM^NES^A1B2C3^JP^HOME^^1234|1234|(555)555-0123^HOME^JP:1234567|||S|MSH|12345678|||||||0|||||N
NK1|1|PEACH^PRINCESS^^^^|SO|ANOTHER CASTLE^^TOADSTOOL KINGDOM^NES^^JP|(123)555-1234|(123)555-2345|NOK|||||||||||||
NK1|2|TOADSTOOL^PRINCESS^^^^|SO|YET ANOTHER CASTLE^^TOADSTOOL KINGDOM^NES^^JP|(123)555-3456|(123)555-4567|EMC|||||||||||||
PV1|1|O|ABCD^EFGH^|||^^|123456^DINO^YOSHI^^^^^^MSRM^CURRENT^^^NEIGHBOURHOOD DR
NBR^|^DOG^DUCKHUNT^^^^^^^CURRENT||CRD|||||||123456^DINO^YOSHI^^^^^^MSRM^CURRENT^^^NEIGHBOURHOOD DR
NBR^|AO|0123456789|1|||||||||||||||||||MSH||A|||20010101000000
IN1|1|PAR^PARENT||||LUIGI
IN1|2|FRI^FRIEND||||PRINCESS