https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/encrypt-a-column/m-p/687637#M208770 <P>Why do you need to decrypt later when you have the original unencrypted version? One method I use hashes the field using the SAS MD5 function:</P> <PRE><CODE class=" language-sas">Account_Key = put(md5(cats('ID',Account_Number)),$hex10.);</CODE></PRE> <P>This type of encryption is one-way though - there is no easy way to decrypt it. By maintaining a list of both the original and encrypted versions there is no need for decryption.&nbsp;</P> Tue, 29 Sep 2020 19:16:35 GMT SASKiwi 2020-09-29T19:16:35Z https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/encrypt-a-column/m-p/687628#M208768 Hello,<BR />I have a SAS data with character column ID that is 20 character in length. But the values are all numbers. I want to encrypt the column ID with symbols, alphabets and numbers. What will be the best way to encrypt the column and be able to decrypt later?<BR />Any suggestion or sample code is appreciated. Tue, 29 Sep 2020 18:45:48 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/encrypt-a-column/m-p/687628#M208768 nickspencer 2020-09-29T18:45:48Z https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/encrypt-a-column/m-p/687637#M208770 <P>Why do you need to decrypt later when you have the original unencrypted version? One method I use hashes the field using the SAS MD5 function:</P> <PRE><CODE class=" language-sas">Account_Key = put(md5(cats('ID',Account_Number)),$hex10.);</CODE></PRE> <P>This type of encryption is one-way though - there is no easy way to decrypt it. By maintaining a list of both the original and encrypted versions there is no need for decryption.&nbsp;</P> Tue, 29 Sep 2020 19:16:35 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/encrypt-a-column/m-p/687637#M208770 SASKiwi 2020-09-29T19:16:35Z