Prescribable RxNorm API
getSpellingSuggestions
- Information returned
- Strings similar to a specified string
- Service domain
- https://rxnav.nlm.nih.gov
- HTTP request
- GETÂ /REST/Prescribe/spellingsuggestions.xml?name=value
Description
Get spelling suggestions for a given term (the name parameter).
The suggestions are terms contained in the current version of the RxNorm data set, listed in decreasing order of closeness to the original phrase.
getSpellingSuggestions is not ideal for finding all extensions of a given stem (such as to suggest complete drug names as someone begins to type on a web form). Instead, consider getDisplayTerms.
Scope
Active: concepts in the current RxNorm data set that have an atom with SAB=RXNORM and SUPPRESS=N
Parameters
Parameter | Location | Use | Description | Default |
---|---|---|---|---|
format | Path | Optional | Notation for results One of:
| .xml |
name | Query | Required | Possibly misspelled term |
All query parameters are case-insensitive.
Note that HTTP requires that query parameters be "URL encoded". For full information on URL encoding, please refer to IETF RFC 3986, "Uniform Resource Identifier".
Output structure
Results are available as either XML or JSON.
The XML result has the root element rxnormdata. It is described in the XML Schema for the Prescribable RxNorm API; the relevant element structure is summarized below. Elements that would be empty might be left out.
The JSON result is an object {...}, analogous to the content of the XML rxnormdata. Fields that might occur multiple times in the XML are expressed as an array. Fields that would be empty might be null or left out. Numbers are expressed as strings.
Both XML and JSON results follow the same outline:
- rxnormdata
- Root element in XML, or anonymous object in JSON
- suggestionGroup
- name
- (Always empty)
- suggestionList
- suggestion (array)
- RxNorm term
See also
Example: Terms like "ambienn"
XML: https://rxnav.nlm.nih.gov/REST/Prescribe/spellingsuggestions?name=ambienn
JSON: https://rxnav.nlm.nih.gov/REST/Prescribe/spellingsuggestions.json?name=ambienn
An XML result is shown below.
<rxnormdata> <suggestionGroup> ... <suggestionList> <suggestion>ambien</suggestion> </suggestionList> </suggestionGroup> </rxnormdata>