How to replace a string with asterisks? This is related to my previous post

Question

I guess I now need to replace the middle segment of what is retrieved with asterisks.
So, the string in the middle '99999988' should be replaced with '********'. I am basically trying to mask the middle sement string. The length of the original string is not known but the first segment is 6 characters and 3 segment is 4 characters. The middle sement can be anywhere between 5 to 10 characters. In the example below, its 8 characters.
Can I use REPLACE or TRANSALE functions in here ?
  select substr('456712999999881234', 1, 6) a,
         substr('456712999999881234', 7, length('456712999999881234') - 10) b,
         substr('456712999999881234', -4) c
  from      dual;Thanks

Answer 1

if the middle section is entirely numbers then translate(<middle_section>, '1234567890', '**********')
otherwise rpad('*', length(col)-10, '*')
eg:
select substr('456712999999881234', 1, 6) a,
         translate(substr('456712999999881234', 7, length('456712999999881234') - 10), '1234567890', '**********') b,
         substr('456712999999881234', -4) c
  from  dual;
A      B        C  
456712 ******** 1234
select substr('456712999999881234', 1, 6) a,
         rpad('*', length('456712999999881234')-10, '*') b,
         substr('456712999999881234', -4) c
  from  dual;
A      B        C  
456712 ******** 1234Although thinking about it, I'd just go for the rpad version; requires less processing that using the translate version, and works for more situations (ie. even if there's characters in the middle section, rather than just numbers)
Edited by: Boneist on 16-Jul-2009 16:54