diff --git a/org.hl7.fhir.utilities/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/utilities/CanonicalPair.java b/org.hl7.fhir.utilities/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/utilities/CanonicalPair.java
index 6fe972e01..221b90e55 100644
--- a/org.hl7.fhir.utilities/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/utilities/CanonicalPair.java
+++ b/org.hl7.fhir.utilities/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/utilities/CanonicalPair.java
@@ -1,26 +1,82 @@
 package org.hl7.fhir.utilities;
 
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
+
+/**
+ * Abstraction that splits a canonical in form of {@code <url>|<version>} into a URL and a version part.
+ */
 public class CanonicalPair {
 
-  private String url;
-  private String version;
+  private final String url;
+  private final String version;
   
+  /**
+   * Static factory method, that invokes the {@link CanonicalPair#CanonicalPair(String) CanonicalPair constructor}
+   * with the given argument.
+   * @param target the canonical to be split. May be {@code null}.
+   * @return new instance of CanonicalPair
+   */
+  public static CanonicalPair of(String target) {
+    return new CanonicalPair(target);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Wraps the given canonical and if needed splits off the version part.<p>
+   * The given parameter {@code target} is expected to be a canonical.
+   * @param target canonical to create a url, version pair from. May be {@code null}.
+   */
   public CanonicalPair(String target) {
-    if (target != null && target.contains("|")) {
-      this.url = target.substring(0, target.indexOf("|"));
-      this.version = target.substring(target.indexOf("|")+1);     
+    int pipeIndex = target != null ? target.indexOf('|') : -1;
+    if (pipeIndex >= 0) {
+      this.url = target.substring(0, pipeIndex);
+      this.version = target.substring(pipeIndex+1);
     } else {
       this.url = target;
       this.version = null;
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Returns the URL part  of the canonical (everything before the {@code "|"} character, or the complete
+   * canonical if the character is not present). If the source 
+   * @return URL part of the source canonical. May be {@code null}, if source canonical was {@code null}
+   */
   public String getUrl() {
     return url;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Returns the version part of the source canonical (everything after the {@code "|"} character.
+   * @return version part of the canonical, may be {@code null}, if canonical was {@code null}, or canonical contains no 
+   *   {@code "|"} character.
+   */
   public String getVersion() {
     return version;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Determines if the version part of the canonical is not {@code null}
+   * @return {@code true} if version is not {@code null}, otherwise {@code false}
+   */
+  public boolean hasVersion() {
+    return version != null;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Returns the version of this pair, or the parameter {@code alternative},
+   * if the version of this pair is {@code null}.
+   * @param alternative to be returned from this method if the encapsulated version is {@code null}.
+   * @return either the held version, or {@code alternative}, if version is {@code null}
+   */
+  public String getVersionOr(String alternative) {
+    return hasVersion() ? version : alternative;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Determines if the encapsulated version of this pair is not {@code null} and not an empty string.
+   * @return {@code true} if the version of this pair is not {@code null} and not an empty string, {@code false} otherwise
+   */
+  public boolean hasNonEmptyVersion() {
+    return StringUtils.isNotEmpty(version);
+  }
 }
diff --git a/org.hl7.fhir.utilities/src/test/java/org/hl7/fhir/utilities/CanonicalPairTest.java b/org.hl7.fhir.utilities/src/test/java/org/hl7/fhir/utilities/CanonicalPairTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3b67bf81b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.hl7.fhir.utilities/src/test/java/org/hl7/fhir/utilities/CanonicalPairTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+package org.hl7.fhir.utilities;
+
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.*;
+
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+class CanonicalPairTest {
+
+  @Test
+  void testCanonicalNull() {
+    var canonical = new CanonicalPair(null);
+    assertNull(canonical.getUrl());
+    assertNull(canonical.getVersion());
+    assertFalse(canonical.hasVersion());
+    assertFalse(canonical.hasNonEmptyVersion());
+    String expectedVer = "1.0";
+    String actualVer = canonical.getVersionOr(expectedVer);
+    assertEquals(expectedVer, actualVer);
+  }
+  
+  @Test
+  void testCanonicalEmpty() {
+    var url = "";
+    var canonical = new CanonicalPair(url);
+    assertEquals(url, canonical.getUrl());
+    assertFalse(canonical.hasVersion());
+    assertFalse(canonical.hasNonEmptyVersion());
+    String expectedVer = "1.0";
+    String actualVer = canonical.getVersionOr(expectedVer);
+    assertEquals(expectedVer, actualVer);
+  }
+  
+  @Test
+  void testCanonicalWithoutVersion() {
+    var url = "https://www.test.org";
+    var canonical = new CanonicalPair(url);
+    assertEquals(url, canonical.getUrl());
+    assertNull(canonical.getVersion());
+    assertFalse(canonical.hasVersion());
+    assertFalse(canonical.hasNonEmptyVersion());
+    String expectedVer = "1.0";
+    String actualVer = canonical.getVersionOr(expectedVer);
+    assertEquals(expectedVer, actualVer);
+  }
+  
+  @Test
+  void testCanonicalWithEmptyVersion() {
+    var expectedUrl = "https://www.test.org";
+    var url = expectedUrl + "|";
+    var canonical = new CanonicalPair(url);
+    assertEquals(expectedUrl, canonical.getUrl());
+    assertEquals("", canonical.getVersion());
+    assertTrue(canonical.hasVersion());
+    assertFalse(canonical.hasNonEmptyVersion());
+    String alternativeVer = "1.0";
+    String actualVer = canonical.getVersionOr(alternativeVer);
+    assertEquals("", actualVer);
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  void testCanonicalWithVersion() {
+    var expectedUrl = "https://www.test.org";
+    var expectedVersion = "2.6";
+    var url = expectedUrl + "|" + expectedVersion;
+    var canonical = new CanonicalPair(url);
+    assertEquals(expectedUrl, canonical.getUrl());
+    assertEquals(expectedVersion, canonical.getVersion());
+    assertTrue(canonical.hasVersion());
+    assertTrue(canonical.hasNonEmptyVersion());
+    String alternativeVer = "1.0";
+    String actualVer = canonical.getVersionOr(alternativeVer);
+    assertEquals(expectedVersion, actualVer);
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  void testCanonicalWithVersionIncludingPipe() {
+    var expectedUrl = "https://www.test.org";
+    var expectedVersion = "2024|05";
+    var url = expectedUrl + "|" + expectedVersion;
+    var canonical = new CanonicalPair(url);
+    assertEquals(expectedUrl, canonical.getUrl());
+    assertEquals(expectedVersion, canonical.getVersion());
+    assertTrue(canonical.hasVersion());
+    assertTrue(canonical.hasNonEmptyVersion());
+    String alternativeVer = "1.0";
+    String actualVer = canonical.getVersionOr(alternativeVer);
+    assertEquals(expectedVersion, actualVer);
+  }
+  
+}
diff --git a/org.hl7.fhir.validation/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/validation/BaseValidator.java b/org.hl7.fhir.validation/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/validation/BaseValidator.java
index 827710f3b..9e88c6b4c 100644
--- a/org.hl7.fhir.validation/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/validation/BaseValidator.java
+++ b/org.hl7.fhir.validation/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/validation/BaseValidator.java
@@ -1428,25 +1428,7 @@ public class BaseValidator implements IValidationContextResourceLoader {
     return null;
   }
   
-  protected String versionFromCanonical(String system) {
-    if (system == null) {
-      return null;
-    } else if (system.contains("|")) {
-      return system.substring(0, system.indexOf("|"));
-    } else {
-      return system;
-    }
-  }
 
-  protected String systemFromCanonical(String system) {
-    if (system == null) {
-      return null;
-    } else if (system.contains("|")) {
-      return system.substring(system.indexOf("|")+1);
-    } else {
-      return system;
-    }
-  }
   
   @Override
   public Resource loadContainedResource(List<ValidationMessage> errors, String path, Element resource, String id, Class<? extends Resource> class1) throws FHIRException {
diff --git a/org.hl7.fhir.validation/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/validation/instance/type/CodeSystemValidator.java b/org.hl7.fhir.validation/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/validation/instance/type/CodeSystemValidator.java
index 6363c37b6..e87456b7c 100644
--- a/org.hl7.fhir.validation/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/validation/instance/type/CodeSystemValidator.java
+++ b/org.hl7.fhir.validation/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/validation/instance/type/CodeSystemValidator.java
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import org.hl7.fhir.r5.model.CodeSystem;
 import org.hl7.fhir.r5.model.CodeSystem.ConceptDefinitionComponent;
 import org.hl7.fhir.r5.model.ValueSet;
 import org.hl7.fhir.r5.terminologies.CodeSystemUtilities;
+import org.hl7.fhir.utilities.CanonicalPair;
 import org.hl7.fhir.utilities.Utilities;
 import org.hl7.fhir.utilities.VersionUtilities;
 import org.hl7.fhir.utilities.i18n.I18nConstants;
@@ -620,7 +621,8 @@ public class CodeSystemValidator  extends BaseValidator {
   private boolean validateSupplementConcept(List<ValidationMessage> errors, Element concept, NodeStack stack, String supp, ValidationOptions options) {
     String code = concept.getChildValue("code");
     if (!Utilities.noString(code)) {
-      org.hl7.fhir.r5.terminologies.utilities.ValidationResult res = context.validateCode(options, systemFromCanonical(supp), versionFromCanonical(supp), code, null);
+      var canonical = new CanonicalPair(supp);
+      org.hl7.fhir.r5.terminologies.utilities.ValidationResult res = context.validateCode(options, canonical.getUrl(), canonical.getVersion(), code, null);
       return rule(errors, NO_RULE_DATE, IssueType.BUSINESSRULE, stack.getLiteralPath(), res.isOk(), I18nConstants.CODESYSTEM_CS_SUPP_INVALID_CODE, supp, code);
     } else {
       return true;