Time, Local Transaction
What it is
hhmmss at the point of transaction, in local terminal time (contrast DE 7, which is UTC).
DE 12 on the wire
Bitmap position
DE 12 is bit 12 of the primary bitmap: byte 2, mask 0x10. A primary bitmap with only DE 12 present reads 0010000000000000 in hex.
Length
DE 12 is fixed length: always 6 digits, with no length prefix. A parser reads exactly that many and moves on, so shorter values are right-aligned and padded with leading zeros.
Size in the message
At most 6 bytes when the message travels as text (ASCII or EBCDIC), or 3 bytes in binary dialects that pack digits as BCD.
Format n
Format n means numeric: the digits 0–9 only.
Specification reference
Defined in ISO 8583:1987 (base). Card networks publish their own dialect tables (Visa BASE I / V.I.P., Mastercard CIS) that refine formats, lengths, and — for private-use elements — the entire layout. Always confirm against the interface specification you implement.