Combinator Masks

The concatenate and chain masks are special in that they can combine multiple masks together. This is especially useful in combination with other masks such as typecast (typecast).

• Concatenate
  Combines the output of multiple mask operations together
• Chain
  Chains multiple mask operations, passing the output of one to the next

Concatenate (concat)

Concatenates the outputs of multiple masks together into a single string.

Parameters

• masks (required): A list of masks (or dictionary mapping keys to masks) which will be evaluated and have their outputs concatenated into a single value. The original column value is provided as the input to each mask.
• glue (optional): If provided, this string will be inserted between the output of each concatenated mask. Defaults to an empty string. Useful for separating values with spaces or commas.

Example

This example generates a full name by concatenating a user’s name with the fixed value ‘Smith’.

version: '1.0'
tasks:
  - type: mask_table
    table: employees
    key: id
    rules:
      - column: name
        masks:
          - type: concat
            glue: " "
            masks:
              - type: from_column
                source_column: name
              - type: from_fixed
                value: "Smith"

Show result

Before	After
name Bill Chris Anastasia Judith Gordon Joel	name Bill Smith Chris Smith Anastasia Smith Judith Smith Gordon Smith Joel Smith

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Chain (chain)

Chains other masks together in series. This mask is only useful in combination with concat, in the case where multiple masking operations need to be performed on one part of a concatenated mask.

Parameters

• masks (required): A list of masks (or dictionary mapping keys to masks) that will be applied in sequence to the input value.

Example

This example selects a random name from the DataMasque_firstNames_mixed.csv file, transforms it to uppercase, and then concatenates ‘Smith’ onto it to generate a random full name.

version: '1.0'
tasks:
  - type: mask_table
    table: employees
    key: id
    rules:
      - column: name
        masks:
          - type: concat
            glue: ' '
            masks:
              - type: chain
                masks:
                  - type: from_file
                    seed_column: firstname-mixed
                    seed_file: DataMasque_firstNames_mixed.csv
                  - type: transform_case
                    transform: uppercase
              - type: from_fixed
                value: 'Smith'

Show result

Before	After
name Bill Chris Anastasia Judith Gordon Joel	name STEVE Smith JAMES Smith JENNIFER Smith FRANK Smith CHARLIE Smith CALEB Smith