Subject: numericString syntax ...

From: sanjay jain <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 13:41:26 -0800

A quick question:

What is the character set for numericString syntax strings ?

Particularly, I am interested in knowing if '+'/'-' chars are

allowed.

RFC 2252 defines 'numericstring' in section 4.1 but it is not

referred in section 6.23 section where 'numericString' syntax

is defined.

thanks

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From: "Kurt D. Zeilenga" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 14:39:55 -0800

>What is the character set for numericString syntax strings ? 

numericString is identical in syntax to a directoryString.
In X.500, this implies the character set is restricted by
a choice of printableString (subset of IA5), teletexString
(T.61), or universalString (UCS-2).

>Particularly, I am interested in knowing if '+'/'-' chars are 

Yes.  But note that "+1" and "1" are not equal by numeric
string matching rules... nor are "-1.0" and "-1".  Numeric
string matching is just like that of case ignore matching
with all spaces being ignored.

>referred in section 6.23 section where 'numericString' syntax 

This is mostly described in X.520.  As noted in LDAPbis WG
discussions, more specific references to X.500 specifications
are needed.  All are, of course, welcomed to participate in
the LDAPv3 revision efforts.
  http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/ldapbis-charter.html

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From: "Kurt D. Zeilenga" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 14:51:52 -0800

>(T.61), or universalString (UCS-2).

And (I should have added) in LDAPv3, directoryString being
restricted to UTF-8 implies that numericString syntax is
likewise restricted to UTF-8.

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From: "Steven Legg" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 11:25:50 +1100

Kurt,

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kurt D. Zeilenga [mailto:[email-masked]]
> Sent: Thursday, 21 December 2000 9:40
> To: [email-masked]
> Cc: ldapext
> Subject: Re: numericString syntax ...
> 
> 

NumericString syntax and DirectoryString syntax are not identical
in X.500. The definition of NumericString comes from X.680 and X.690,
and is essentially the space and digit characters only, using the ASCII
code points.

BTW, the latest definition of DirectoryString is a choice of
PrintableString, TeletexString, BMPString (UCS-2, UNICODE),
UniversalString (UCS-4) and UTF8String.

Regards,
Steven

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From: "Steven Legg" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 10:53:25 +1100

Sanjay,

The definition of NumericString in X.680 restricts the characters to space
and the digits
0 to 9.

Steven
  -----Original Message-----
  From: sanjay jain [mailto:[email-masked]]
  Sent: Thursday, 21 December 2000 8:41
  To: ldapext
  Subject: numericString syntax ...

  A quick question:

  thanks

---

From: "Kurt D. Zeilenga" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 15:22:16 -0800

>numericString is identical in syntax to a directoryString.

Upon reflection, this statement is incorrect.  numericString
is a ASN.1 string type...

>(T.61), or universalString (UCS-2).

and hence likely has significant restrictions upon allowed
characters.  "ASN.1 Complete" says 0-9 and space and when
encoded using BER are represented using the corresponding
ASCII characters.

>>Particularly, I am interested in knowing if '+'/'-' chars are 

Per "ASN.1 Complete", no.

>Numeric string matching is just like that of case ignore matching

This statement, however, appears to be correct given the
syntax restricts.

>As noted in LDAPbis WG
>are needed.

This is an example of why more specific references are needed.

Now it's to go look at my numeric string syntax validation
function... :-)

Kurt