Service Indicator
What it is
Service indicator for file actions.
DE 94 on the wire
Bitmap position
DE 94 is bit 30 of the secondary bitmap: byte 4, mask 0x04. A secondary bitmap with only DE 94 present reads 0000000400000000 in hex. The secondary bitmap is only sent when bit 1 of the primary bitmap is set, so any message carrying DE 94 has a primary bitmap whose first hex digit is 8 or higher.
Length
DE 94 is fixed length: always 7 characters, with no length prefix. A parser reads exactly that many and moves on, so shorter values are left-aligned and padded with trailing spaces.
Size in the message
At most 7 bytes when the message travels as text (ASCII or EBCDIC).
Format an
Format an means alphanumeric: letters and digits.
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.