Date, Expiration
What it is
Card expiry as YYMM. Issuers validate it against the card record; absent when the acquirer cannot provide it.
Example values
2812Card expires December 2028.DE 14 on the wire
Bitmap position
DE 14 is bit 14 of the primary bitmap: byte 2, mask 0x04. A primary bitmap with only DE 14 present reads 0004000000000000 in hex.
Length
DE 14 is fixed length: always 4 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 4 bytes when the message travels as text (ASCII or EBCDIC), or 2 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.