CryptoPointers

Here is another one, in the BCMA MEDICATION LOG File: 53.79,.11    ORDER REFERENCE NUMBER .1;1 FREE TEXT (Required)

INPUT TRANSFORM: K:$L(X)>15!($L(X)<1)!'(X?.N1"U"! (X?.N1"V")!(X?.N1"P")) X              LAST EDITED:      MAY 9,2001 HELP-Prompt
 * Answer must be 1-15 characters in

length. DESCRIPTION: Contains the IEN to the actual order in PHARMACY PATIENT (#55) followed by a U for Unit Dose or V for IV

Record INDEXES:  AORDX (#47), AUID (#147) I call this a "crypto-pointer to the ORDER file, File 100. I recently dealt with this by creating a COMPUTED POINTER to File 100, using this field. Details on request.

BTW, a quick search of FOIA VistA finds exactly one computed pointer, field 3.3 of File 798, pointing to File 4. -

Of course the classic example is in the lab data file where a combination of PARENT FILE (.02) and NAME (,03) are used as a pseudo variable pointer to either the patient file (2) or referral patient file (67).

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And here is another one in the Domain file: 4.21,1.3       PHYSICAL LINK / DEVICE 0;5 FREE TEXT

INPUT TRANSFORM:K:$L(X)>30!($L(X)<1) X I $D(X) S %ZIS="NQRS",IO P=X D ^%ZIS K:POP X S:$D(X) X=ION W:$D(X) " Sto                               red internally as ",X D ^%ZISC S IOP="HOME" D ^ %ZIS K IOP,%ZIS LAST EDITED:   MAR 12, 1993 HELP-Prompt:   Answer must be 3-30 characters in length. DESCRIPTION:   The physical link is the channel that the transmission will take place on. This field is always a free text pointer to the device file. See field 17 / Physical Link Device for more information. Just as a Historical point about the Lab Data file, that was Lab's solution for a variable pointer before at least 1986. Long before there was such a field type within FM.

Chris Edkins