Code 39 Extended

Code 39 Extended

The Code 39 Extended barcode symbology is discrete, variable length and self-checking. It is based on Code 39 but can encode full 128 character ASCII by using shift combinations.

Also known as: Code 39 Full ASCII.

Uses:

• Code 39 labels that need lowercase letters or other ASCII characters, read by scanners set to Full ASCII.

Variants:

• Code 39 is a simpler variant of Code 39 Extended.

Standards: ISO/IEC 16388, ANSI/AIM BC1 - USS Code 39, BS EN 800.

Data and Options

• The data field can consist of any ASCII data.
• When the parse option is specified, any instances of ^NNN in the data field are replaced with their equivalent ASCII value, useful for specifying unprintable characters, e.g. ^029 for GS, etc.
• The includecheck option calculates the check digit.
• The validatecheck option takes the last character of the data to be the check character, calculated over the shift-encoded Code 39 characters, and refuses the data if it is wrong.
• The includecheckintext option makes the calculated check digit appear in the human readable text.
• The hidestars option suppresses the asterisks in the human readable text.

Examples

A symbol encoding lowercase and special characters:

Data:    Code39 Ext!
Options: includetext includecheck
Encoder: code39ext

A symbol using the parse option to encode a GS control character:

Data:    Code39^029Extended
Options: parse includecheck
Encoder: code39ext