Tasks > Masking rules > Random masking

Random masking

Random masking produces random, non-repeatable results for the same source data and masking rules.

Random masking does not require a seed value. The results of random masking are non-deterministic. Use random masking to mask string, numeric, and date data types.

Random string masking

Configure random masking to generate random output for string data types.

To configure limitations for each character in the output string, configure a mask format.

The following table describes the parameters that you can use with random string masking:

Masking parameters	Descriptions
Mask Format	The type of character to substitute for each character in the source data. You can limit each character to an alphanumeric, numeric, or character type.
Filter Source	Determines whether to skip masking some of the source characters. Configure the Source Filter Type and the Source Filter Chars parameters when you enable this option. Default is disabled.
Source Filter Type	Defines a filter that determines which characters to mask in the source. Use with the Source Filter Chars parameter. You must enable the Filter Source parameter to configure this parameter. Choose one of the following options: - Mask Only. Mask only the characters that you configure as source filter characters. - Mask All Except. Mask all characters except the characters you configure as source filter characters.
Source Filter Chars	The source characters that you want to mask or the source characters that you want to skip masking. Each character is case-sensitive. Enter the source filter characters with no delimiters. For example, AaBbC.
Filter Target	Determines whether to limit the characters that can appear in the target. Configure the Target Filter Type and the Target Filter Chars parameters when you enable this option. Default is disabled.
Target Filter Type	Defines a filter that determines which characters to use in the target mask. Use with the Target Filter Chars parameter. You must enable the Filter Target parameter to configure this parameter. Choose one of the following options: - Use Only. Limit the target to the characters that you configure as target filter characters. - Use All Except. Limits the target to all characters except the characters you configure as target filter characters.
Target Filter Chars	The characters that you want to use in a mask or the characters that do not want to use in a mask, based on the values of target filter type. Each character is case-sensitive. Enter the target filter characters with no delimiters. For example, AaBbC.

Random numeric masking

To mask numeric data, you configure a range of output values for a field.

The masking task returns a value between the minimum and maximum values of the range depending on field precision. To define the range, configure the minimum and maximum ranges or a blurring range based on a variance from the original source value.

The following table describes the parameters that you can configure for random masking of numeric data:

Masking parameter	Description
Range	A range that you want to set for the numeric data. Select the check box to enter a minimum and maximum range.
Minimum Range	The minimum value of the range.
Maximum Range	The maximum value of the range. The maximum value must be greater than the minimum value.
Blurring	A range of output values that are within a fixed variance or percent variance of the source data. Select the check box to enter blurring details.
Blurring Option	The unit of blurring. Select Fixed or Percent. Default is Fixed.
Low Bound	The low boundary of the variance from the source number.
High Bound	The high boundary of the variance from the source number.

Numeric blurring

To blur a numeric source value, select a fixed or percent variance, a high bound, and a low bound. The high and low bounds must be greater than or equal to zero.

The following table lists the masking results for blurring range values when the input source value is 66:

Blurring type	Low	High	Result
Fixed	0	10	Between 66 and 76
Fixed	10	0	Between 56 and 66
Fixed	10	10	Between 56 and 76
Percent	0	50	Between 66 and 99
Percent	50	0	Between 33 and 66
Percent	50	50	Between 33 and 99

Random date masking

Random date masking produces random, non-repeatable results for the same source date.

You can assign a minimum and a maximum date for the results. You can also configure blurring to define a variance limit for the date results.

The following table describes the parameters that you can configure for random date masking:

Masking parameter	Description
Range	A range that you want to specify for the date data. Select the check box to set minimum and maximum values for a datetime value.
Minimum Range	The minimum value to return for the selected datetime value. The default datetime format is MM/DD/YYYY HH24:MI:SS.
Maximum Range	The maximum value to return for the selected datetime value. The maximum datetime must be later than the minimum datetime.
Blurring	Mask a date as a variance of the source date.
Blurring Unit	Unit of the date to apply the variance to. Select the year, month, day, or hour. Default is year.
Low Bound	The low boundary of the variance from the source date.
High Bound	The high boundary of the variance from the source date.

Date blurring

To blur a datetime source value, select a unit of time to blur, a high bound, and a low bound. You can select year, month, day, or hour as the unit of time. By default, the blur unit is year.

For example, to restrict the masked date to a date within two years of the source date, select year as the unit. Enter two as the low and high bound. If a source date is 02 February, 2006, the masking task returns a date between 02 February, 2004 and 02 February, 2008.