G Appendix: UPC Barcode

UPC-E items compress a normal 12-digit UPC-A item into six digits. The application has the ability to decompress UPC-E barcodes to UPC-A. A seventh digit acts as a check digit for the UPC-E number. When the user scans the UPC-E barcode, the application finds the UPC-A barcode and displays the item ID associated with it.

Differences Between UPC-A and UPC-E

UPC-E is also called zero suppressed UPC because UPC-E compresses a normal twelve-digit UPC-A number into a six-digit code by suppressing the number system digit, trailing zeros in the manufacturers code and leading zeros in the product identification part of the bar code message. A seventh check digit is encoded into a parity pattern for the six main digits. UPC-E can thus be uncompressed back into a standard UPC-A twelve-digit number.

Note:

Most bar code readers can be configured to automatically convert six-digit UPC-E numbers to twelve-digit UPC-A numbers before they are transmitted to a host computer.

The main difference between a UPC-A symbol and a UPC-E symbol is the size. The following image presents a UPC-A bar code (left) and the same data encoded as a UPC-E bar code (right):

Figure G-1 UPC-A and UPC-E Differences

To convert between UPC-A and UPC-E bar code numbers, you can use the following table or try online UPC-E converter program. In the following, the number 0 and each of the letters (a, b, c, d and e) represent individual digits in the bar code message. The letter X represents the UPC check digit.

Table G-1 UPC Conversion Table

UPC-A Number	Equivalent UPC-E	Notes
0ab00000cdeX	abcde0X	Manufacturer code must have two leading digits with three trailing zeros and the item number is limited to three digits (000 to 999).
0ab10000cdeX	abcde1X	Manufacturer code must have three leading digits ending with 1 and two trailing zeros. The item number is limited to three digits.
0ab20000cdeX	abcde2X	Manufacturer code must have three leading digits ending with 2 and two trailing zeros. The item number is limited to three digits.
0abc00000deX	abcde3X	Manufacturer code must have three leading digits and two trailing zeros. The item number is limited to two digits (00 to 99).
0abcd00000eX	abcde4X	Manufacturer code must have four leading digits with one trailing zero and the item number is limited to one digit (0 to 9).
0abcde00005X 0abcde00006X 0abcde00007X 0abcde00008X 0abcde00009X	abcde5X abcde6X abcde7X abcde8X abcde9X	Manufacturer code has all five digits. The item number is limited to a single digit consisting of either 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9.

Conversion Between UPC-A and UPC-E

Not all UPC-A numbers can be compressed to UPC-E. These codes with a corresponding UPC-E code must have at least four zeros. The requirements are:

1. If the manufacturer code ends with 000, 100, or 200, the UPC-E code consists of the first two characters of the manufacturer code, the last three characters of the product code, followed by the third character of the manufacturer code. In this case, the product code must be 00000 and 00999.
If the manufacturer code ends with 00 but does not meet the first requirement, the UPC-E code consists of the first three characters of the manufacturer code, the last two characters of the product code, followed by digit 3. The product code can only contain two digits (00000 to 00099).
If the manufacturer code ends in 0 but none of the previous qualifies, the UPC-E consists of the first four digits of the manufacturer code and the last digit of the product code, followed by the digit 4. The product code in this case can only contain one digit (00000 to 00009).
If the manufacturer code ends with non-zero digit, the UPC-E code consists of the manufacturer code and the last digit of the product code. In this case the product case can only be one from 00005 to 00009 because 0 through 4 has been used for the previous four cases.