Barcode PLANET

The PLANET format is a variant of barcode used in the USA, in particular by UPS for the routing of postal mail.

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The PLANET Barcode format makes it possible to code only digits characters (0-9), in principle numbers with 12 or 14 digits. It contains 4 parts: the type of mail, a sender code, some tracking / marketing codes, a control character.

Each digit is coded in 5 bits, represented by short (= 0) or long (= 1) bars. The PLANET correspondence table is:

The last digit is a check digit.

A PLANET barcode completely coded begins and ends with a bit 1 (represented with a long bar), it also includes a check digit before the final 1.

The decryption of the PLANET Code is made up by reading binary black bands: short (= 0) and long (= 1). The binary data obtained is then translated via the coding table.

Example: A message 1 11100 11010 11001 1 translates to 123

PLANET checksum is missing in this example

The PLANET code uses a checksum such that the sum of all digits is a multiple of 10. To this end, an additional digit $ X $ completes the barcode.

To calculate it, add all the digits of the barcode and keep the digit of units $ N $. The checksum is $ X = (10 - N) \mod 10 $.

Example: The number 987 has for sum of digits $ 9 + 8 + 7 = 24 $, the unit digit is $ 4 $. The checksum is $ X = 10 - 4 \mod 10 \equiv 6 $.

The PLANET barcode has a graphic form based on long and short vertical bars/lines.

The PLANET barcode begins and ends with a long pipe/bar.

Each character is coded by a group of 5 bits composed of 3 long bars and 2 short bars.

The PLANET barcode has a variable length but most often 12 or 14 characters.

A PLANET barcode has a binary length equal to 2 modulo 5 (its unit digit is 2 or 7) because all the other characters are on 5 bits and 2 bits 1 are added at the beginning and at the end.