User Guide > Data Masking Techniques and Parameters > Advanced Masking
  

Advanced Masking

Use advanced masking when you want to apply multiple masking techniques to a column or when you want to configure multiple input and output columns in the same masking rule. You can mask all datatypes.
When you configure advanced masking, you configure the input columns, output columns, and variable columns. Variable columns are work fields that you can define to temporarily store data.
When you create the columns in the masking rule, the column names do not need to be the same as the column names in the source. When you assign the masking rule to columns, you must map the source columns to columns in the advanced masking rule.

Advanced Masking Parameters

Configure parameters for each column that you create in an advanced masking rule.
The following table describes the general properties that you can configure for input, output, and variable columns:
Parameter
Description
Column Name
The name of an input, output, or variable column. Enter any name. The name does not have to match the name of a column in the source. When you assign the rule to source data in a project, you map the column names in the rule to column names in the database.
Column Type
The column type. You can configure the following types of columns:
  • - Input. Receives the source data.
  • - Variable. A temporary column that contains intermediate values. You can apply masking rules to variable column values in order to mask data before returning data to output columns.
  • - Output. Returns the output data. You can apply an expression or a masking rule to variable column data and return the data in the output column.
Datatype
The datatype of the column.
Precision
The precision for the column. The maximum number of digits or the maximum number of characters that the column can accommodate. For example, 798.650 has a precision of 6.
Scale
Number of digits to the right of the decimal point in a number.
Mandatory
Indicates if you must assign the column to a column in the source. Applies to input and output columns.
The following table describes the masking properties that you can configure for variable columns and output columns:
Parameter
Description
Expression
An expression to apply to the variable column. You can create the expression in the Expression Builder.
Masking Rule
Applies a masking rule to the input column and writes the results in the variable column. You can enter the following parameters.
  • - Condition. Defines whether an input column should be masked or not. If the condition is true, the PowerCenter Integration Service masks the column.
  • - Rule. The data masking rule to apply to the input column.
  • - Override properties. You can change the data masking rule parameters if the rule owner enabled the rule to be overridden.
  • - Input column. The name of the input column to apply the masking rule to. Select an input column from the columns that you added to the rule.
Condition Input
Applies an expression to the Output column only. Select a condition from the list. If you applied conditions on the input column, you can use it for the output column.
Dependent
Applies dependent masking. Dependent masking replaces the value of a column based on the values returned from a dictionary row for another column. You must define substitution masking for another column before configuring a column for dependent masking.
Enter the following parameter:
  • - Input column. The name of the input column that you configured for substitution masking.
  • - Dictionary column. Choose the dictionary column to replace the dependent column with.

Advanced Masking Example

You can create an expression to combine multiple columns in an advanced masking rule.
Create an expression in the Expression Builder. Select columns, functions, variables, and operators to build expressions. The expression can reference input columns and variable columns.
For example, you have a CUSTOMERS table that contains first and last names. You want to mask the names and combine the masked values into a masked full name.
The following table shows the columns that you create in an the advanced masking rule to combine the masked names:
Column Name
Column Type
Masking Technique
Expression
FIRST_NAME
INPUT
–
–
LAST_NAME
INPUT
–
–
FIRST_MASKED
VARIABLE
Substitution on FIRST_NAME
_
LAST_MASKED
VARIABLE
Substitution on LAST_NAME
_
FULL_NAME
OUTPUT
Expression
FIRST_MASKED || ' ' || LAST_MASKED
Mask the FIRST_NAME and LAST_NAME with Substitution. Return FULL_NAME using an expression that combines the FIRST_MASKED and LAST_MASKED columns.
When you create expressions in the Expression Builder, use the point-and-click interface to minimize errors. Verify that the expression returns a value that matches the output column data type.