[can.general] SIN Checksum Calculations

dave@perle.UUCP (Dave LeReverend) (12/22/88)

Mark Bartelt has pointed out an ambiguity in my posting of December 20.
I now quote myself:

> As an example, I used a 9-digit SIN with the following form:
>         123 456 78C
> where "C" is the check sum digit.

> Steps:

> 1) Use the even digits to form a four-digit number.
>    In this example, it's: 2468

> 4) Use the odd digits (but not "C") to form another four-digit number.
>    1357

When I said, in step 1, "even digits", I meant "digits that occupy an even
position".  I did not mean "digits which have even values".

A similar clarification should be applied to step 4.

I'm sorry if this caused any confusion.

There is also ambiguity with regards to summing the digits;  if a carry
occurs, is the carry summed, too?  I suspect it is, but I don't know any
real SINs that result in this case, so I haven't tested it. 

David LeReverend

root@helios.toronto.edu (Operator) (12/23/88)

In article <422@perle.UUCP> dave@perle.UUCP (Dave LeReverend) writes:
>Mark Bartelt has pointed out an ambiguity in my posting of December 20.
>
>When I said, in step 1, "even digits", I meant "digits that occupy an even
>position".  I did not mean "digits which have even values".
>
>A similar clarification should be applied to step 4.
>

That clears it up nicely. I tried it again with the clarified algorithm,
and this time it worked fine.

Apologies for jumping the gun. Evidently the holder's gender plays no part
in the number.




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