SideValueInd (FIX tag 401)

intFIX 4.4FIX 4.2

SideValueInd (tag 401) is an int field defined in FIX 4.4 and FIX 4.2. It appears in 2 message types, always optionally. It is an enumerated field with 2 defined values.

At a glance

Tag: 401
Name: SideValueInd
Datatype: int
Dialects: FIX 4.4 and FIX 4.2
Messages: 2
Valid values: 2

What the specification says

FIX 4.4

Code to identify which "SideValue" the value refers to. SideValue and SideValue2 are used as opposed to Buy or Sell so that the basket can be quoted either way as Buy or Sell.

FIX 4.2

Code to identify which "SideValue" the value refers to. SideValue1 and SideValue2 are used as opposed to Buy or Sell so that the basket can be quoted either way as Buy or Sell.

Descriptions are quoted from the FIX Orchestra sources under the Apache 2.0 licence.

A real message using tag 401

NewOrderList · FIX 4.4

Tag	Field	Wire value	Meaning
8	BeginString	FIX.4.4
9	BodyLength	148
35	MsgType	E	Order – List
49	SenderCompID	BOARTEAM
56	TargetCompID	COUNTERPARTY
34	MsgSeqNum	2
52	SendingTime	20240101-12:00:00.000
66	ListID	EXAMPLE
394	BidType	1	"Non Disclosed" Style (e.g. US/European)
68	TotNoOrders	1
73	NoOrders2 entries	2	repeating group
11	ClOrdID	ORD-10042
67	ListSeqNo	1
54	Side	1	Buy
401	SideValueInd	1	SideValue1
11	ClOrdID	ORD-10042
67	ListSeqNo	1
54	Side	1	Buy
401	SideValueInd	1	SideValue1
10	CheckSum	053

Edit and decode it yourself

Shown with | separators for readability. On the wire FIX uses SOH (0x01), an invisible control byte — and because BodyLength and CheckSum are computed over the actual bytes, the two forms have different checksums. Both are valid and both decode here.

Open in the full decoder →

Generated from the FIX 4.4 dictionary and verified at build time: it parses and validates with no issues. Open the decoder to try your own message.

Valid values

A value outside this list is not a parse error — the message still decodes — but validate() reports it as validate/value-not-in-enum.

Value	Meaning	Symbolic name	Dialects
1	SideValue1	SIDEVALUE1	FIX 4.4
2	SideValue 2	SIDEVALUE_2	FIX 4.4

Where tag 401 appears

Requiredness is a property of the message, not of the field: the same tag can be optional in one message and conditionally required in another.

Message	MsgType	FIX 4.4	FIX 4.2	Where in the message
BidRequest	k	Optional	Optional	inside the BidDescReqGrp component
NewOrderList	E	Optional	Optional	inside the ListOrdGrp component

Wire format

A whole number, optionally signed. Leading zeros are legal on the wire and are preserved in the raw value. @boarteam/fix parses the value as a number and reports parse/invalid-int when it does not lex as one; the raw string is kept either way.

Read tag 401 in TypeScript

decode.tsts

import { createFixEngine } from "@boarteam/fix";import { dictionary } from "@boarteam/fix-dict-fix44";const fix = createFixEngine(dictionary);const { message, issues } = fix.parse(raw);const sideValueInd = message.fields[401]?.raw;// e.g. "1" — SideValue1// The dictionary also carries the labels:const label = fix.dictionary  .fieldByTag(401)  ?.enumValues?.find((e) => e.value === sideValueInd)  ?.description;

Decode this in your own code

The same engine that produced the decoded example above is an Apache-2.0 npm package with zero runtime dependencies. It runs in Node and in the browser, and parse() returns problems as data instead of throwing.

npm i @boarteam/fix @boarteam/fix-dict-fix44

Try the decoder Source on GitHub