Most of the bar codes we see around us are just a sequence of untyped bytes, the reader might infer their meaning based on the encoding (carrier), or by looking at the bytes – if the content starts with http, it probably is a url.
One example of structured bar code is GS1’s expanded Databar. The code is segmented in various fields, whose type is identified by a number. If you look at the bar code in the image, it contains the following fields:
| Type | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 02 | 04049500673266 | GTIN of the item in the package |
| 17 | 200630 | Expiration data, 30th of June 2020, not 2006. |
| 37 | 20 | Count of Trade Items. The box actually contains 100 pieces. |
| 10 | 599692006 | Batch Number. |
What is interesting is that this product has a PZN, the german medical product identifier, with number 06453501, this number could have been encoded in the Databar, with application/type code 710.
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