topic Re: Function to Masking Numbers in SAS Programming

Function to Masking Numbers

gsreddy — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 11:09:51 GMT

Hi All,

Do we have any function in SAS to mask the numbers?

i Have a variable name Ph_num like below:

Input:

Ph_Num:

9876543210

required Output:

98765xxxxx

Re: Function to Masking Numbers

RW9 — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 11:16:21 GMT

What are the rules for masking as:

want=cats(substr(ph_num,1,5),repeat('x',lengthn(ph_num)-5));

Should work for your given example. Or you could loop over the string etc.

Re: Function to Masking Numbers

gamotte — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 12:16:38 GMT

Hello,

I'm not very at ease with picture formats but i think this works :

proc format;
    picture mask
        0-9999999999 ='99999XXXXX' (mult=0.00001);
run;

data _null_;
    format a b mask.;
    a=9876543210;
    b=0012345678;
    put a= b=;
run;

Re: Function to Masking Numbers

RW9 — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 12:29:27 GMT

The only thing I would say there is that it doesn't change the underlying data, take the format away and the number displays as before.

Re: Function to Masking Numbers

gamotte — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 12:44:30 GMT

Yes, it depends whether the goal is to store masked number or only use masks for publications. If the latter, using a format can be a solution.