ISO/TC 46/SC 9/working Group 1
ISO/TC 46/SC 9/working Group 1
Audiovisual identifier
check digit
The check digit is a 1 digit hexadecimal number which purpose is to check that no
errors occurs during ISAN audiovisual identifier transcription.
As detailed hereafter, the calculation of the check digit is based on ISO 7064, MOD
17,16.
The system we are used to is a base-10 number system, because for most of us we
have 10 fingers.
Hexadecimal describes a base-16 number system. The numbering system is such that
it contains 16 sequential numbers as base units before adding a new position to the
next number.
ISO International Organization for Standardization ISO Organisation internationale de normalisation
TC 46 Information and Documentation TC 46 Information et documentation
SC 9 Presentation, Identification and Description of Documents SC 9 Présentation, identification et description des documents
WG 1 International Standard Audiovisual Number (ISAN) WG 1 Numéro international normalisé des oeuvres audiovisuelles (ISAN)
ISO/TC 46/SC 9/WG 1 N 130
2000-04-13
page 2
0123456789ABCDEF
Note that each of the above 16 digit is coded by computers as 4 binary digits (bit). One
major advantage of using these numbers is that we are saving “space” (number of bits),
compared with a system based on ASCII characters where each digit would be coded
as 8 bits (= a byte).
The previous method (ISO 7064 MOD 11,10) was relevant for decimal number, as the
set of characters used to represent such numbers is made of 10 items
(0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9).
ISO/TC 46/SC 9/WG 1 N 130
2000-04-13
page 3
Ø Thus, we will use the ISO 7064, MOD 17,16 Hybrid recursive method.
Note
For an alphanumeric string, we would have to use the ISO 7064, MOD37,36 hybrid
recursive method as the set of possible characters are made of the 36 following
characters : {0,..,9, A,..,Z}.
Algorithm for calculating the ISAN check digit : Hybrid system recursive method
The 15 characters of the string are processed character by character from left to right.
Let n the number of characters including the check digit, and M the modulo of the
method. The 16 characters of the ISAN string (including the check digit) are numbered
from right to left:
a1 is the check digit, and a2 to a16 are the characters of the audiovisual identifier.
j=1, P1=M
where
||M : is the remainder after division by M. If the remainder equals 0, then ||M = M.
|M+1 : is the remainder after division by M+1 (never equals to 0).
an-j+1 : value of a character in the string.