encrypt a column

[nickspencer]

Hello,
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?
Any suggestion or sample code is appreciated.

[SASKiwi]

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:

Account_Key = put(md5(cats('ID',Account_Number)),$hex10.);

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.