Date Replacement

The Date Replacement framework masks a date value based on specified beginning and end dates. Masked output values are calculated algorithmically using the algorithm's key, so rekeying the algorithm will cause a different output value to be generated for each input. It is possible for an input to be masked to itself.

As an example, a Date Replacement algorithm with a minimum range of "2020-01-01 00:00:00" and a maximum range of "2020-01-05 00:00:00" with the unit set to Days will replace the input value with a date in the specified range. Dates may mask as follows:

• "1995-03-05 13:25:00" → "2020-01-02 00:00:00"

• "2021-10-13 01:59:59" → "2020-01-04 00:00:00"

• "1856-07-31 00:00:00" → "2020-01-01 00:00:00"

Another example with a minimum range of "2020-01-01 01:00:00" and a maximum range of "2020-01-01 03:00:00" with the unit set to Hours provides 3 possible mask values:

• "2020-01-01 01:00:00"

• "2020-01-01 02:00:00"

• "2020-01-01 03:00:00"

Using the same range of "2020-01-01 01:00:00" to "2020-01-01 03:00:00" but with the unit set to Minutes, there are 121 possible output values as the unit is the granularity at which time is subdivided. Note that the range is inclusive of both range values. Possible masked values may be as follows:

• "2020-01-01 01:00:00"

• "2020-01-01 01:14:00"

• "2020-01-01 01:59:00"

• "2020-01-01 02:23:00"

• "2020-01-01 03:00:00"

All inputs with the same value masked with the same algorithm configuration will result in the same output values.