@glion/utils

Shared helpers for HL7v2 AST work — diagnostics reporting, length/byte measurement, and conformance checks.

What it does

Provides the low-level utilities used across the Glion ecosystem: a report() function for emitting diagnostics onto a VFile, getLength/getByteLength for measuring any AST node without serializing it, and stateless checkOptionality/checkCardinality/checkLength conformance validators. Linters and transformers reach for this package to avoid reimplementing these primitives.

Install

npm install @glion/utils

Use

import { report, getByteLength, checkCardinality } from "@glion/utils";
import type { Diagnostic } from "@glion/utils";
import { VFile } from "vfile";

const rule: Diagnostic = {
  type: "lint",
  namespace: "field",
  code: "required",
  title: "Required Field Missing",
  description: "A required field is missing from the segment.",
  severity: "error",
  message: (ctx) => `Field '${ctx.fieldPath}' is required`,
};

const file = new VFile();
report(file, rule, { context: { fieldPath: "PID-5" }, node: segmentNode });

const bytes = getByteLength(segmentNode);
const result = checkCardinality(fieldNode, 1, 5);

API

report(file, rule, options?)

Reports a diagnostic to a VFile. This is the standard way to report issues across Glion linters, validators, and transformers.

Parameters

• file (VFile | null | undefined) — The VFile to report to.
• rule (Diagnostic) — The diagnostic rule definition.
• options (ReportOptions, optional):
  • node (Node, optional) — The AST node related to the diagnostic.
  • context (Record<string, unknown>, optional) — Context data passed to the diagnostic's message function.

Example

import { report } from "@glion/utils";
import type { Diagnostic } from "@glion/utils";
import { VFile } from "vfile";

const requiredFieldRule: Diagnostic = {
  type: "lint",
  namespace: "field",
  code: "required",
  title: "Required Field Missing",
  description: "A required field is missing from the segment.",
  severity: "error",
  message: (ctx) => `Field '${ctx.fieldPath}' is required`,
  helpUrl: "https://example.com/docs/required-field",
};

const file = new VFile();
report(file, requiredFieldRule, {
  context: { fieldPath: "PID-5" },
  node: segmentNode,
});

getByteLength(node)

Calculates the byte length of any HL7v2 AST node. Efficiently computes the total serialized length including all children and separators (assumed to be 1 byte each).

Parameters

• node (Nodes | null | undefined) — The AST node to measure.

Returns

number — The total byte length when the node is serialized.

Algorithm

• For literal nodes (Subcomponent, SegmentHeader): returns the byte length of the value using UTF-8 encoding (i.e., Buffer.byteLength(value, 'utf8')).
• For parent nodes: recursively sums the byte length of all children plus 1 byte per separator between children.
• Handles all node types: Root, Segment, Group, Field, FieldRepetition, Component, Subcomponent.

O(n) time complexity where n is the total number of nodes in the tree.

Example

import { getByteLength } from "@glion/utils";
import type { Field } from "@glion/ast";

const field: Field = {
  type: "field",
  children: [
    {
      type: "field-repetition",
      children: [
        {
          type: "component",
          children: [
            { type: "subcomponent", value: "SMITH" },
            { type: "subcomponent", value: "JOHN" },
          ],
        },
      ],
    },
  ],
};

// Calculate: SMITH&JOHN = 5 + 1 + 4 = 10 bytes
const length = getByteLength(field); // Returns: 10

getLength(node)

Calculates the string length of any HL7v2 AST node. Efficiently computes the total serialized character length including all children and separators (assumed to be 1 character each).

Parameters

• node (Nodes | null | undefined) — The AST node to measure.

Returns

number — The total string length when the node is serialized.

Algorithm

• For literal nodes (Subcomponent, SegmentHeader): returns value.length (JavaScript string length).
• For parent nodes: recursively sums the string length of all children plus 1 character per separator between children.
• Handles all node types: Root, Segment, Group, Field, FieldRepetition, Component, Subcomponent.

Important note

Returns JavaScript string length (UTF-16 code units). For UTF-8 byte length (e.g., for wire protocol or size constraints), use getByteLength instead. These values differ for characters outside the ASCII range.

Example

import { getLength, getByteLength } from "@glion/utils";

const subcomponent = { type: "subcomponent", value: "café" };

getLength(subcomponent); // 4 (4 characters)
getByteLength(subcomponent); // 5 (5 bytes in UTF-8: c-a-f-C3-A9)

Conformance utilities

Stateless, composable functions to validate HL7v2 AST nodes against constraints like optionality (usage), cardinality, and length.

ValidationResult

All conformance functions return a ValidationResult object:

type ValidationResult =
  | { ok: true }
  | {
      ok: false;
      error: {
        code: string;
        message: string;
        expected?: string | number | Array<string | number>;
        actual?: string | number | Array<string | number>;
      };
    };

checkOptionality(node, optionality)

Checks if a node satisfies the optionality (usage) constraint.

• node (Nodes | undefined) — The AST node to check.
• optionality (string) — The usage code (e.g., 'R', 'O', 'X').
• Returns ValidationResult.

import { checkOptionality } from "@glion/utils";

// 'R' (Required), 'RE' (Required or Empty), 'O' (Optional), 'X' (Not Supported)
const result = checkOptionality(myFieldNode, "R");

if (!result.ok) {
  console.error(result.error.message); // "is required but missing"
}

checkCardinality(node, min, max)

Checks if a field has the correct number of repetitions.

• node (Field | undefined) — The field node to check.
• min (number) — Minimum repetitions.
• max (number | '*') — Maximum repetitions.
• Returns ValidationResult.

import { checkCardinality } from "@glion/utils";

// Field must repeat between 1 and 5 times
const result = checkCardinality(myFieldNode, 1, 5);

checkLength(node, max, min?)

Checks if the content of a node falls within the minimum and maximum length.

• node (Nodes | undefined) — The node to check (length is calculated recursively).
• max (number) — Maximum length.
• min (number, optional, default 0) — Minimum length.
• Returns ValidationResult.

import { checkLength } from "@glion/utils";

// Content length must be between 1 and 10 characters
const result = checkLength(myNode, 10, 1);

// Content length must be at most 10 characters (min defaults to 0)
const result2 = checkLength(myNode, 10);

Part of Glion

@glion/utils is part of Glion, the application framework for HL7v2. See the Glion README for the full package catalog and architecture.