FHIR Release 3 (STU)

This page is part of the FHIR Specification (v3.0.2: STU 3). The current version which supercedes this version is 5.0.0. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions . Page versions: R4B R4 R3 R2

Extension nullFlavor - Detailed Descriptions

Detailed Descriptions for the elements in the extension.

Extension
Definition

If the value is not a proper value, indicates the reason.

Control0..1 This element is affected by the following invariants: ele-1
Comments

Considerable care must be used when using nullFlavor in this context of FHIR - more than any other concept, this is tied to the way v3 works, and FHIR is quite different. For instance, there is no notion of a "proper value" as opposed to any other value in FHIR. a NullFlavor should be understood to mean, "why information is missing", and the nulFlavors OTH, NINF, PINF, and TRC should not be used.

InvariantsDefined on this element
ele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (xpath: @value|f:*|h:div)
ext-1: Must have either extensions or value[x], not both (xpath: exists(f:extension)!=exists(f:*[starts-with(local-name(.), 'value')]))
Extension.id
Definition

unique id for the element within a resource (for internal references). This may be any string value that does not contain spaces.

Control0..1
Typestring
Extension.extension
Definition

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension.

Control0..*
TypeExtension
Alternate Namesextensions, user content
Comments

There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

SlicingThis element introduces a set of slices. The slicing rules are:
  • unordered
  • Open
  • discriminators: value:url
Extension.url
Definition

Source of the definition for the extension code - a logical name or a URL.

Control1..1
Typeuri
Comments

The definition may point directly to a computable or human-readable definition of the extensibility codes, or it may be a logical URI as declared in some other specification. The definition SHALL be a URI for the Structure Definition defining the extension.

Fixed Valuehttp://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/iso21090-nullFlavor
Extension.valueCode
Definition

Value of extension - may be a resource or one of a constrained set of the data types (see Extensibility in the spec for list).

Control0..1
Terminology BindingA collection of codes specifying why a valid value is not present
The codes SHALL be taken from v3 Code System NullFlavor
Typecode