EDI X12 vs UN/EDIFACT

The table below highlights the difference between the EDI X12 standard
and EDIFACT standard.
Topic

ANSI X12

UN/EDIFACT

Application

Mostly used in
North America

Mostly used in Europe and Asia

Transaction Sets

Messages

Loops

Groups

Terminators

Separators

Interchange
Header/Trailer Segments

ISA/IEA

UNB/UNZ

Group
Header/Trailer Segments

GS/GE

UNG/UNE (optional)

Transaction Set, (Message)

Header/Trailer

ST/SE

UNH/UNT

Separators Specification
Segment

None

UNA (optional)

Segment

'

Element

Composit
e

>

Release Indicator

Not supported

Supported

Composite Elements

Rarely used

Commonly Used

Acknowledgment

TA1 and 997

CONTRL

Binary support

BIN, BDS
segments

ISO 9735-8 - Associated data in EDI

Terminologies Equivalence

Commonly used
Terminators,
(Separators)

Security

ASC X12.58 Security

Structures

- ISO 9735-5 - Security rules for

batch EDI (authenticity, integrity and
non-repudiation of origin)
- ISO 9735-6 - Secure authentication
and acknowledgement message
(message type - AUTACK)
- ISO 9735-7 - Security rules for
batch EDI (confidentiality)

- ISO 9735-9 - Security key and

certificate management message
(message type - KEYMAN)

UN/EDIFACT Security rules are not currently

supported in Framework EDI
Below is a diagram of the control segments of an ASC X12 format

Below is a diagram of the control segments of a UN/EDIFACT format

The EDIdEv Framework EDI component supports both the X12 and
UN/EDIFACT standards. It is basically an EDI parser, which you would
reference in your program so that you can quickly create EDI solutions to
support EDI files from both these standards. Download the example
programs to see how easily it can be done.