When you're using the identifier method to mask data, advanced settings are available. The settings allow you to alter input values by changing uppercase characters to other uppercase characters, lowercase characters to other lowercase characters, and digits to other digits, while leaving other characters unchanged.

4.8.0 All the special characters in Unicode (double-byte characters) that are non-English-language characters is masked to X except the alphanumeric character and some special characters, such as -./@#$ %^&*()\:;?_"

You can remove, copy, or replace specific characters with additional settings.

The Identifier method is recommended as a way to obfuscate a business identifier data class or business term that has a simple recurring pattern, such as employee IDs, customer IDs, and part numbers. This method is not recommended for variable length text data, such as given names and surnames or comment fields, because the Identifier method preserves the string length and character case information about the data in the unmasked input; this preserved information increases the risk of re-identification of unusual outlier values.

Characters formatting options

Uppercase: Convert the source values to uppercase before processing. The output value is uppercase, too

Remove: Specifies the characters, within enclosed double quotation marks, to remove from the source value before processing.

Trim

Removes leading, trailing, and duplicate sequential characters from the source value before processing.

By default, trim removes white space, and you can specify other characters that you want to remove. Enter characters to trim and surround them by double quotation marks.

Copy or Replace

Specifies one or more pairs of substrings to copy to a destination value. You can also replace with a literal string.

Starting position: The starting position of the substring to copy to the destination. The first character is 1.

Ending position: The ending position of the substring to copy to the destination.

Enter replacement characters: (Optional) A literal string that replaces the source characters in the specified positions. If the literal string is shorter than the substring, the provider replicates the literal until the lengths match. If the literal string is longer than the substring, it is truncated.