When I look at the definition of a String type in the FIX protocol (e.g. here or here), I don't see a minimum length specified. Is it allowed to use empty strings? One online decoder seems to accept an empty string value (see tag 320), an other complains that it's invalid.
2 Answers
The FIX 4.4 specification states the following (emphasis in the original text):
Each message is constructed of a stream of
<tag>=<value>fields with a field delimiter between fields in the stream. Tags are of data type TagNum. All tags must have a value specified. Optional fields without values should simply not be specified in the FIX message. A Reject message is the appropriate response to a tag with no value.
That strongly suggests (but does not unambiguously state) to me that the use of an empty value for a string is invalid. It is unsurprising to me that different FIX implementations might treat this edge case in different ways. So, I think the best approach is to avoid using empty values for strings.
+1 for Ciaran's and Grant's answer/comments. Just want to add something.
I generally suggest to look up things like this in the most current specification since they usually have been refined/reworded/clarified to eliminate unclear or ambiguous statements from older specs.
The answer is on the very page you link to in your question (emphasis mine, search for "Well-formed field"): https://www.fixtrading.org/standards/tagvalue-online/#field-syntax
A well-formed field has the form:
tag=value<SOH>A field shall be considered malformed if any of the following occurs as a result of encoding:
the tag is empty
the tag delimiter is missing
the value is empty
the value contains an
<SOH>character and the datatype of the field is not data or XMLdatathe datatype of the field is data and the field is not immediately preceded by its associated Length field.
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