Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Unified Medical Language System® (UMLS®)

01/04/2016
Version 2016-1

RxNorm Technical Documentation - Table of Contents

Section 1: Introduction
Section 2: Scope of RxNorm
Section 3: Preservation of Content and Meaning
3.1     Source Vocabularies
Section 4: Ambiguity in RxNorm Source Data
Section 5: Drug Delivery Devices
Section 6: Normalizing NDC codes
6.1     Examples of NDC code normalizations
6.2     Examples of RXNSAT.RRF entries
Section 7: Propagating NDC codes in RxNorm
7.1     NDC data counts
Section 8: UNII codes in RxNorm
Section 9: Duplicating Source Asserted Atoms (with NDC conflicts)
Section 10: Drug Dose Forms and the Modified Format
10.1     Syrup and Elixir Dose Forms
10.2     Extended Release Products
Section 11: Release Types and Explanation
11.1     Character Encoding
11.2     RxNorm Release File Format
11.3     RxNorm Conventions
11.4     Uses of Concept and Atom Identifiers
11.5     Concepts and Concept Identifiers
11.6     RxNorm Current Prescribable Content
Section 12: Data Files - RxNorm Rich Release Format (RXNRRF)
12.1    Columns and Rows
12.2    Descriptions of Each File
12.3    RXNDOC.RRF
12.4    RXNCONSO.RRF
12.5    RXNSAT.RRF
12.6    RXNSTY.RRF
12.7    RXNREL.RRF
12.8    RXNSAB.RRF
12.9    RXNCUI.RRF
12.10    RXNATOMARCHIVE.RRF
12.11    RXNCUICHANGES.RRF
Section 13: Database Creation Automation
13.1    Main scripts subdirectory
13.1.1    Oracle database
13.1.2    MySQL database
13.2    Prescribe scripts subdirectory
13.2.1    Oracle database
13.2.2    MySQL database
Section 14: RxNorm in a Database System
14.1    Primary Keys for Each File
14.2    Sample Database Queries
Section 15: RxNorm for Drug Application Interfaces
Appendix 1 - RxNorm Relationships (RELA)
Appendix 2 - RxNorm Dose Forms (TTY=DF) with Definitions
Appendix 3 - RxNorm Dose Form Groups (TTY=DFG)
Appendix 4 - RxNorm Attributes
Appendix 5 - RxNorm Term Types (TTY)

Last Reviewed: January 4, 2016