FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—October 15, 2008—Ypsilanti, MI—To accommodate the continuing growth of chemical substances, CAS, a division of American Chemical Society, announced in mid-January 2008 that it is now assigning 10-digit CAS Registry Number (CAS RN) identifiers for newly registered substances. The 10th digit appears in the left-most position in the CAS RN. For example, a new CAS RN is seen in the following form:
xxxxxxx-xx-x
The database already can store the longer number. Quantum has changed data entry programs to zero pad shorter values to 10 digits and modify the check sum validation routine to include the longer value.
For existing data, Quantum has created an update program to convert all 9 digit CAS numbers to 10 digit CAS numbers (convert 000050-00-0 to 0000050-00-0). Depending on the size of a client’s database,this program may take more than a day to run. To retain data integrity, the program will convert all occurrences of a CAS number at a time before moving on to the next CAS number. The program will also keep track of which CAS number it is converting and can resume where it left off should it stop unexpectedly. This also allows a larger customer to have multiple sessions of the program running at once to speed up the conversion process.
For Quantum customers receiving List of List updates from services such as ChemAdvisor or CAS.org, the program updates will also handle importing either 9 or 10 digits CAS numbers.
We anticipate the program updates to be available for clients before the end of October 2008. Clients will be contacted by their FacTS™ Project Manager to coordinate sending the program updates and well as providing instructions on running the conversion program. If you have any questions, please contact your FacTS™ Project Manager.
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