Global Trade Item Number (GTIN)

GTINs comes in multiple formats: They are either 8, 12, 13, or 14 characters long, and the GTIN variants are accordingly named GTIN-8, GTIN-12, GTIN-13, or GTIN-14. Biip supports all GTIN formats.

Let's use the GTIN-12 123601057072 as another example:

>>> result = biip.parse("123601057072")
>>> print(result)
ParseResult(
    value='123601057072',
    gtin=Gtin(
        value='123601057072',
        format=GtinFormat.GTIN_12,
        prefix=GS1Prefix(value='012', usage='GS1 US'),
        company_prefix=None,
        item_reference=None,
        payload='12360105707',
        check_digit=2
    ),
    upc=Upc(
        value='123601057072',
        format=UpcFormat.UPC_A,
        number_system_digit=1,
        payload='12360105707',
        check_digit=2
    ),
    sscc_error="Failed to parse '123601057072' as SSCC: Expected 18 digits, got 12.",
    gs1_message_error="Failed to get GS1 Application Identifier from '7072'."
)

Use GTIN-14 in databases

All GTINs can be encoded as any other GTIN variant that is longer than itself. Thus, the canonical way to store a GTIN in a database is as a GTIN-14. Similarly, you'll want to convert a GTIN to GTIN-14 using as_gtin_14() before using it for a database lookup:

>>> result.gtin.value
'123601057072'
>>> result.gtin.as_gtin_14()
'00123601057072'

By consistently using GTIN-14 internally in your application, you can avoid a lot of substring matching to find the database objects related to the barcode.

Learn more

To learn more about GTIN, see the biip.gtin reference documentation.