Generator summary

The following table summarizes the available generators. The table includes generator characteristics that you might take into account when you select the generator to use for a column. Generator hints and tips also provides some suggestions for generators to use for specific uses cases.

Information in the table

The generator summary includes the following columns:

• Generator - The name of the generator, linked to the entry in the generator reference.

• Description - An overview description of the generator. Also includes:

  • For generators that can be data-free, whether the generator is always data-free, or only data-free when consistency is disabled. Data-free means that the output data is completely unrelated to the source data. For more information, go to Data-free generators.

  • The possible privacy rankings for the generator. The privacy ranking indicates the level of protection that the generator provides. For information about the available privacy rankings, go to Privacy ranking.

• Consistency - Whether the generator supports consistency. Consistency bases the output values on the source values. For generators that support consistency, the Consistency column also indicates the supported type of consistency - self consistency or consistency with another column. For more information, go to Enabling consistency.

• Linking - whether you can link columns that are assigned the generator. When you link columns, you indicate that the columns have a relationship. For more information, go to Linking generators.

• Differential Privacy - Whether the generator supports differential privacy, which ensures that the source value cannot be reverse engineered from the output value. For more information, go to Differential privacy.

Generator	Description	Consistency	Linking	Differential Privacy
Address	Generates a random string to replace a specific part of a mailing address. Data-free if not consistent. Privacy ranking: - 1 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self or other	Yes	Yes if not consistent
AI Synthesizer	Uses deep neural networks for high-fidelity data mimicking. By default, not available. Privacy ranking: 3	No	No	No
Algebraic	Identifies the algebraic relationship between 3 or more numeric values (at least one non-integer) and generates new values to match. Privacy ranking: 3	No	Yes	No
Alphanumeric String Key	Generates unique alphanumeric strings of the same length as the input. Privacy ranking: - 3 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self	No	No
Array Character Scramble	Within an array, replaces letters with random other letters, and numbers with random other numbers. Privacy ranking: - 3 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self	No	No
Array JSON Mask	Runs a selected generator on values that match a user-specified JSONPath. Privacy ranking: 5	--	--	--
Array Regex Mask	Runs a selected generator on values that match a regular expression. Privacy ranking: 5	--	--	--
ASCII Key	Generates unique alpha-numeric strings based on any printable ASCII characters. Privacy ranking: - 3 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self	No	No
Business Name	Generates a random company name-like string. Data-free if not consistent. Privacy ranking: - 1 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self or other	No	Yes if not consistent
Categorical	Creates values at the same frequency as the values in the underlying data. Privacy ranking: - 2 if differential privacy enabled - 3 if differential privacy not enabled	No	Yes	Configurable
Character Scramble	Replaces letters with random other letters and numbers with random other numbers. Privacy ranking: - 3 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self	No	No
Character Substitution	Replaces characters randomly, but preserves formatting. Privacy ranking: 4	Yes - Implicitly consistent	No	No
Company Name (Deprecated)	This generator is deprecated. Use the Business Name generator instead. Generates a random company name-like string. Data-free if not consistent. Privacy ranking: - 1 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self or other	No	Yes if not consistent
Conditional	Applies different generators to rows conditionally based on any value in the table. Privacy ranking: If a fallback generator is selected, then the lower of either 5 or the fallback generator. 5 if no fallback generator is selected.	No	No	No
Constant	Uses a single specified value to mask all values in the column. Data-free. Privacy ranking: 1	No	No	Yes
Continuous	Generates a continuous distribution to fit the underlying data. Privacy ranking: - 2 if differential privacy enabled - 3 if differential privacy not enabled	No	Yes	Configurable
Cross Table Sum	Populates the column using the sum of the values in other columns. Privacy ranking: 3	No	No	No
CSV Mask	Masks a text column. Parses the text as a row for which the columns are delimited by a specified character. Privacy ranking: 5	--	--	--
Custom Categorical	Selects from values you provide. Data-free if not consistent. Privacy ranking: - 1 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self or other	No	Yes if not consistent
Date Truncation	Truncates dates or timestamps to a specific date or time part. Privacy ranking: 5	No	No	No
Email	Scrambles characters in an email address. Preserves the formatting and keeps the @ and .. Privacy ranking: - 3 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self	No	No
Event Timestamps	Generates timestamps that fit an event distribution. Privacy ranking: 3	No	Yes	No
File Name	Scrambles characters in a file name. Preserves the formatting and the file extension. Privacy ranking: - 3 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self	No	No
Find and Replace	Replaces all instances of the find string with the replace string. Privacy ranking: 5	No	No	No
FNR	Transforms Norwegian national identity numbers. Privacy ranking: - 3 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self or other	No	No
Geo	Masks columns that contain latitude and longitude values. Privacy ranking: 3	No	No	No
HIPAA Address	Can be used to generate cities, states, zip codes, and latitude/longitude values that follow HIPAA guidelines for safe harbor. Privacy ranking: - 3 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self	No	No
Hostname	Generates random host names, based on the English language. Data-free if not consistent. Privacy ranking: - 1 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self or other	No	Yes if not consistent
HStore Mask	Runs selected generators on specified key values in an HStore column in a PostgreSQL database. Privacy ranking: 5	--	--	--
HTML Mask	Masks text columns. Parses the contents as HTML, and applies sub-generators to the specified path expressions. Privacy ranking: 5	--	--	--
Integer Key	Generates unique integer values. By default, the generated values are within the range of the column’s data type. You can also specify a range for the generated values. The source values must be within that range. Data-free if not consistent. Privacy ranking: - 1 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self	No	Yes if not consistent
International Address	For Canadian mailing addresses, can generate: Street name Postal code For United Kingdom (UK) mailing addresses, can generate postal codes. Privacy ranking: - 1 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self	No	No
IP Address	Generates a random IP address-formatted string. Data-free if not consistent. Privacy ranking: - 1 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self or other	No	Yes if not consistent
JSON Mask	Runs a generator on values that match a user specified JSONPath. Privacy ranking: 5	--	--	--
MAC Address	Generates a random MAC address formatted string. Data-free if not consistent. Privacy ranking: - 1 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self	No	Yes if not consistent
Mongo ObjectId Key	Generates unique MongoDB objectId values. Privacy ranking: - 3 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self	No	No
Name	Generates a random name string from a dictionary of first and last names. Data-free if not consistent. Privacy ranking: - 1 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self or other	No	Yes if not consistent
Noise Generator	Masks values in numeric columns. Adds or multiplies the original value by random noise. Privacy ranking: - 3 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self or other	No	No
Null	Generates NULL values to fill the rows of the specified column. Data-free. Privacy ranking: 1	No	No	Yes
Numeric String Key	Generates unique numeric strings of the same length as the input. Privacy ranking: - 3 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self	No	No
Passthrough	Default generator. Does not perform any action on the source data. Privacy ranking: 6	No	No	No
Phone	Generates a random phone number that matches the country or region and format of the input phone number. Privacy ranking: 3	Yes - Self	No	No
Random Boolean	Generates a random boolean value. Data-free. Privacy ranking: 1	No	No	Yes
Random Double	Generates a random double number between the specified min and max. Data-free. Privacy ranking: 1	No	No	Yes
Random Hash	Generates a random hash string. Data-free Privacy ranking: 1	No	No	Yes
Random Integer	Returns a random integer between the specified min and max. Data-free. Privacy ranking: 1	No	No	Yes
Random Timestamp	Generates random dates, times, and timestamps. Data-free. Privacy ranking: 1	No	No	Yes
Random UUID	Generates a random new UUID string. Data-free. Privacy ranking: 1	No	No	Yes
Regex Mask	Uses regular expressions to parse strings. Replaces specified substrings with output from selected sub-generators. Privacy ranking: 5	--	--	--
Sequential Integer	Generates a column of unique integer values that start with specified value and increment by 1. Privacy ranking: 3	No	Yes	No
Shipping Container	Generates values of ISO 6346 compliant shipping container codes. Data-free if not consistent. Privacy ranking: - 1 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self or other	No	Yes if not consistent
SIN	Generates a new valid Canadian Social Insurance Number. Data-free if not consistent. Privacy ranking: - 1 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self	No	Yes if not consistent
SSN	Generates a new valid United States Social Security Number. Data-free if not consistent. Privacy ranking: - 1 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self or other	No	Yes if not consistent
Struct Mask	Can apply other generators on specific StructFields within a StructType in Spark databases (Databricks and Amazon EMR). Privacy ranking: 5	--	--	--
Timestamp Shift	Shifts timestamps by a random amount of a specific unit of time, within a set range. Privacy ranking: - 3 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self or other	No	No
Unique Email	Generates unique email addresses. Replaces the username with a randomly generated GUID, and masks the domain with a character scramble. Privacy ranking: - 3 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self	No	No
URL	A substitution cipher that preserves formatting but keeps the URL scheme and top-level domain intact. Privacy ranking: 3	No	No	No
UUID Key	Generates UUIDs on primary key columns. Privacy ranking: - 3 if not consistent - 4 if consistent	Yes - Self	No	No
XML Mask	Runs a selected generator on values that match a user-specified XPath. Privacy ranking: 5	--	--	--