PARTIN — EDIFACT Party Information Message (D.21B)

The PARTIN message conveys the master data of a trade partner: commercial identifiers, contact details, billing and shipping addresses, banking and tax information. It is used to initialise or update EDI partner directories. This page summarises the segment structure as published by UN/CEFACT for directory D.21B.

Purpose

The PARTIN message conveys the master data of a trade partner: commercial identifiers, contact details, billing and shipping addresses, banking and tax information. It is used to initialise or update EDI partner directories.

This page focuses on the structure published by UN/CEFACT for directory D.21B. The segments listed, their status (M / C), position and repetition factor are extracted from the official file partin_c.htm hosted on service.unece.org.

Segment structure

The PARTIN D.21B message has 13 header entries, 52 detail entries and 0 summary entries (segments and groups combined). Groups are shown in bold and their members are indented by actual nesting depth.

Header

Detail

Summary

No segment in this section.

Changes vs D.96A

Top-level differences between D.96A and D.21B for the PARTIN message (segments directly inside header / detail / summary, ignoring nested groups). The comparison is indicative: a given tag may have evolved inside nested groups without showing up in this synthesis.

Segments added vs D.96A

• IDE in the detail section (status C, repeat ×9) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.
• FTX in the detail section (status C, repeat ×9) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.
• TAX in the detail section (status C, repeat ×9) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.
• HYN in the detail section (status C, repeat ×9) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.
• PYT in the detail section (status C, repeat ×1) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.
• PCD in the detail section (status C, repeat ×9) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.
• MOA in the detail section (status C, repeat ×9) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.
• RCS in the detail section (status M, repeat ×1) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.
• QTY in the detail section (status C, repeat ×9) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.
• CCI in the detail section (status M, repeat ×1) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.
• CAV in the detail section (status C, repeat ×9) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.
• MEA in the detail section (status C, repeat ×9) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.
• PRC in the detail section (status M, repeat ×1) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.
• LIN in the detail section (status M, repeat ×1) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.
• DOC in the detail section (status M, repeat ×1) — not present at the top of the corresponding D.96A section.

Segments removed vs D.96A

• PAT in the detail section — present in D.96A but missing in D.21B at the same level.

Structural example

Minimal example of an PARTIN D.21B message with mandatory segments only. The goal is to show the exact version declared in UNH (PARTIN:D:21B:UN) — not to replicate a full business case (see the PARTIN D.96A page for an annotated example).

UNB+UNOC:3+5410000000123:14+5410000000456:14+260514:1430+CTRL021001'
UNH+1+PARTIN:D:21B:UN'
BGM+23+PARTIN-2026-0301+9'
DTM+137:20260514:102'
NAD+BY+5410000000123::9++EDIVERSE SAS+10 RUE DE PARIS+PARIS++75001+FR'
CTA+IC+:Pierre Martin'
COM+pierre.martin@example.com:EM'
FII+BF+FR7630001007941234567890185:CCBPFRPPVER:25'
UNT+7+1'
UNZ+1+CTRL021001'

Common errors

• Misaligned UNH tokens — The UNH+...+PARTIN:D:21B:UN token must reflect exactly the directory in use — a mismatch between the UNH release and the release agreed with the partner is rejected by every strict validator.
• Wrong UNT segment count — The value after UNT+ must include UNH and UNT themselves. By far the most common sender-side error, regardless of the directory in use.
• Stale code lists — Between D.96A and D.21B, several code lists received new qualifiers (DTM status, RFF qualifier, NAD codes…). Reusing an older directory’s code tables triggers warnings or even rejections depending on the partner’s strict-conformance mode.

Related messages

Other versions of this message available on ediverse.io: PARTIN D.96A, PARTIN D.01B, PARTIN D.10A, PARTIN D.16B, PARTIN D.24A, PARTIN D.97A, PARTIN D.99B, PARTIN D.00B, PARTIN D.02B, PARTIN D.05A, PARTIN D.08A, PARTIN D.13B, PARTIN D.18B, PARTIN D.20B.

X12 functional equivalent: X12 838.

← All EDIFACT versions