S1000D Information Codes: The List, and How to Read Them

The information code is the segment of the data module code that says what kind of information a module contains. It is exactly three characters, uppercase letters or digits, followed by a one-character information code variant: in 520A, the code is 520 (Remove procedure) and the variant is A.

Read the three characters from the left. The first places the code in one of eleven primary groups; the second and third narrow it. So everything in the 500s is about disconnecting, removing, or disassembling, and 520 is the removal itself. Once the groups are familiar, an unfamiliar code is rarely a mystery: its first character already tells you the kind of task.

Variants. The variant letter distinguishes alternative data modules for the same information. A is the usual first variant; a second way of performing the same activity gets its own letter rather than a different code.

Project codes. The specification leaves room for projects: its default BREX marks specific ranges as project available, in general codes whose third character is a letter. The codes the specification itself defines can be restricted by a project, so a program can forbid codes it does not use, but not redefined. Both decisions belong in the project's business rules and BREX.

Codes and schemas. The information code mostly describes content rather than dictating its structure: which data module type a code is written in is largely a project and tooling decision. The exceptions are few and pointed: 022 must be a BREX data module, 024 a business rules document, and references to warnings and cautions must point at 012 modules or the 0A4 and 0A5 repositories.

Learning content. Training data modules add two optional segments after the information code, the learn code and learn event code, and they travel together: use one and the other is required.