Encoding of MedDRA Dictionary Files

y Yasutaka

on April 6, 2020

Hi,

"UTF-8" is an appropriate encoding for five MedDRA dictionary files - pt.asc, soc.asc, llt.asc, hlt.asc and hlgt.asc to install into Pinnacle Community?

I cannot find this information in below.

https://www.pinnacle21.com/projects/validator/configuring-meddra

Kind regards,

Forums: Troubleshooting and Problems

Sergiy

on April 6, 2020

P21

P21 supports only ASCII format MedDRA

Hi Yasutaka,

".asc" file name extension means ASCII coding. These files are included into dictionary package from MedDRA. Pinnacle 21 validator utilizes only MedDRA files in ASCII format.

Could you clarify your case? Do you use a Japanese version of MedDRA dictionary? Do you have any specific request from PMDA?

Thank you,

Sergiy

j Jozef

on April 6, 2020

Encoding of MedDRA Dictionary Files

To extend Sergiy's anwer:
UTF-8 essentially corresponds to Unicode, covering all written languages in the world.

ASCII supports "American" characters only. Using "ASCII only" is essentially outdated ("neglecting the rest of the world" ...)
However, ASCII character set should be a subset of Unicode (see http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/software-technology/difference-between-unicode-and-ascii/), meaning that in most cases, programs that can read UTF-8 also can read ASCII.

Java (P21 seems to be written in this programming language) stores everything as Unicode by default.

Conclusion: if some program asks you whether UTF-8 is ok to import, and your file is ASCII, you have a good chance that it works.

Hope this help!

Jozef Aerts
Professor in Medical Informatics

y Yasutaka

on April 7, 2020

Hi Sergiy and Jozef, Thank…

Hi Sergiy and Jozef,

Thank you for your quick answers. I just wanted to confirm if P21 has any specific requirements but it's very helpful for me to understand the differences.

FYI: I don't use Japanese version of MedDRA dictionary and no specific request from PMDA.

Best regards,

Yasutaka