1. EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)
EDI follows industry standards.
Example (X12 850 Purchase Order)
ISA*00*
*00* *ZZ*BUYER*
GS*PO*BUYER*SUPPLIER*
ST*850*0001
BEG*00*NE*PO12345
SE*4*0001
GE*1*1
IEA*1*000000001
Characteristics
- Highly
standardized
- Used
between trading partners
- Requires
EDI translator/mapping
- Common
in retail, healthcare, logistics, manufacturing
2. XML (Extensible Markup Language)
XML uses opening and closing tags.
Example
<PurchaseOrder>
<OrderNumber>PO12345</OrderNumber>
<Customer>ABC
Hospital</Customer>
</PurchaseOrder>
Characteristics
- Self-describing
- Easy
to validate using XSD
- Widely
used in SAP, Oracle, enterprise applications
3. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)
JSON uses key-value pairs.
Example
{
"OrderNumber":
"PO12345",
"Customer": "ABC
Hospital"
}
Characteristics
- Lightweight
- Easy
to read
- Popular
for REST APIs
- Common
in cloud integrations
4. Flat Files
Plain text files with delimiters or fixed positions.
CSV Example
PO12345,ABC Hospital,100
Pipe Delimited Example
PO12345|ABC Hospital|100
Fixed Length Example
PO12345 ABC
Hospital 100
Characteristics
- Very
simple
- Easy
to create
- Common
in legacy systems
- Often
used in SAP PI/PO and batch integrations
Example
Imagine a customer sends a Purchase Order.
EDI Version
BEG*00*NE*PO12345
XML Version
<OrderNumber>PO12345</OrderNumber>
JSON Version
{
"OrderNumber":"PO12345"
}
Flat File Version
PO12345
Same business information, different formats.
When to Use What?
Use EDI when:
- Working
with retailers, distributors, hospitals, logistics providers.
- Exchanging
official business documents.
- Trading
partners require standards like X12 or EDIFACT.
Use XML when:
- Integrating
enterprise systems.
- Need
strong validation and hierarchical data.
Use JSON when:
- Building
APIs.
- Cloud
integrations.
- Modern
web applications.
Use Flat Files when:
- Legacy
systems are involved.
- Batch
processing is sufficient.
- Simplicity
is preferred.
