Repeating Fields and Indices
A portion of a message defined by a field and its children fields can repeat in a message. Each portion of the message defined by that field that repeats is identified by an index starting at 0. When defining the filter criteria, transaction identifier (multiple transactions per message), instance identifier, or payloads, you must specify which indices should be used.
Below is the Indices dialog box with an example of repeating fields. As you can see in this example, children of a repeating field can also repeat. Each field in the hierarchy must indicate what indices should be used. If a range of indices is specified you can get multiple transactions, instances and payloads depending on which identifiers are being configured.
Column | Description |
|---|---|
Message Field | The name of the field being referenced. |
Repeat Count | The number of times the field is repeated as entered in the original Field format when creating the message format. The numbers in parentheses represent the range of positions with 0 being the first position. The last number in the parentheses is always one less than the first number in the Repeat column. |
Index Type | An index indicates whether a Single value from multiple possible values should be used, or a Range of values from multiple possible locations should be used (thereby requiring you to define the Min Index and Max Index). An index is necessary if you have multiple transactions in a message, batch process messages, or have multiple sets of payload data in a transaction. |
Index | Used only when the Index type is Single. Identifies the position of the of the field to be used. Use 0 for the first position, 1 for the second, and so forth, or select All from the list to use all fields. 0 is the default. Select an index for each repeated message field. |
Min. Index | Used only when the Index type is Range. Identifies the lowest index position. See Index for other details. |
Max. Index | Used only when the Index type is Range. Identifies the highest index position. See Index for other details. |
Below is an example of a payload defined with repeating fields. The Indices column shows a summary of the configured indices.
