Go read the wikipedia article on EDI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_data_interchange
This will give you the key words to use when asking for information. Its sort of like a csv file, sure you can split the columns, but then you are left with anonymous values that may be data, but without knowing what the values describe, they're certainly not information (except maybe information about what column # of row # is).
At least some csv files and xml files include names for columns / values, edi doesn't even do that.
Organizations that send or receive documents between each other are referred to as "trading partners" in EDI terminology. The trading partners agree on the specific information to be transmitted and how it should be used. This is done in human readable specifications (also called Message Implementation Guidelines). While the standards are analogous to building codes, the specifications are analogous to blue prints.