NAME

Net::HL7::Segments::MSH

SYNOPSIS

my $seg = new Net::HL7::Segments::MSH();

$seg->setField(9, "ADT^A24"); print $seg->getField(1);

DESCRIPTION

The Net::HL7::Segments::MSH is an implementation of the Net::HL7::Segment class. The segment is a bit different from other segments, in that the first field is the field delimiter after the segment name. Other fields thus start counting from 2! The setting for the field separator can be changed by the setField method on index 1. The MSH segment also contains the default settings for field 2, COMPONENT_SEPARATOR, REPETITION_SEPARATOR, ESCAPE_CHARACTER and SUBCOMPONENT_SEPARATOR. These fields default to ^, ~, \ and & respectively.

METHODS

setField($index, $value)

Set the field specified by index to value. Indices start at 1, to stay with the HL7 standard. Trying to set the value at index 0 has no effect. Setting the value on index 1, will effectively change the value of Net::HL7::Segment::FIELD_SEPARATOR for the remainder of this process; setting the field on index 2 will change the values of COMPONENT_SEPARATOR, REPETITION_SEPARATOR, ESCAPE_CHARACTER and SUBCOMPONENT_SEPARATOR, if the string is of length 4.

toString()

Return a string representation of this segment, based on the Net::HL7::Segment::FIELD_SEPARATOR variable.

AUTHOR

D.A.Dokter <dokter@wyldebeast-wunderliebe.com>

LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2002 D.A.Dokter. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.