Category Functions

Category functions are included with the Protector stage library. You can use category functions only in the Protector: Expression processor and the Protector: Masks processor.

Category functions return parts of certain categories of data, such as the area code of a phone number, or the domain of an email address. Category functions enable you to protect sensitive data while retaining parts of the original data for processing.

For example, to protect phone numbers while retaining the area code, you might use one of the following expressions with the Protector: Expression processor:

Area code ${US_PHONE:areaCode()} - This replaces phone numbers with Area code <area code>.
${US_PHONE:areaCode()}-xxx-xxxx - This returns the area code of the phone number with the rest of the number removed, as follows: <area code>-xxx-xxxx.
To achieve this same result, you could alternatively use the following mask with the Protector: Masks processor: 123-xxx-xxxx.

When needed, you can use category functions to standardize the data for available categories.

You can use category functions for the following types of data: