anonymizing or hashing data to tableau server

[JohnMaty]

HI all,

Does anyone know a way to anonymizing  data in Alteryx?  I have unique identifiers that function as keys in my current DB.  When I publish data to Tableau server I want to be able to change these IDs so they are usable in Tableau but revertable to IDs in my DB.  Any ideas? 

[danilang]

Hi @JohnMaty 

The problem with, and actually the Raison d'etre, of most hashing algorithms is that they're designed to be one-way.  String A gives hash value B, but given hash B you can't recreate String A.  That's where encryption algorithms come in.  They can both encrypt and decrypt data.  They can also be difficult to implement.  Luckily, @Ned, one of the founders of Alteryx, has a post where he shows how to encrypt data using a key.  He also provided the workflow that does it.

Dan

[JohnMaty]

Thanks I will be checking that out.  I figured hashing was not feasible or logical here but thought, "hey, this is Alteryx, someone might have a 'thing'"

[danilang · Accepted solution]

Hi @JohnMaty 

If you're willing to take an approach where you push fake IDs to Tableau and store a mapping table somewhere else, you can use this to generate the anonymous ids

Get the list of unique IDs and use a RecordID to generate a String key for each ID.  Join back to the input data, giving you something like this to send to Tableau

The mapping table looks like this 

Dan

[JohnMaty]

This is EXACTLY the approach I am currently taking so it is reassuring that an ACE agrees.  I think this will meet the needs of our department.  Thank you for the insight!

[danilang]

My pleasure, @JohnMaty.  Just always keep mind the second half of the "Great minds think alike" saying;)

Dan