Alpha (A-Z)

Details about the Alpha (A-Z) token type.

The Alpha token type tokenizes both uppercase and lowercase letters.

Table: Alpha Tokenization Type properties

Tokenization Type Properties
Settings
Name
Alpha
Token type and Format
Lowercase letters a through z
Uppercase letters A through Z

SLT_1_3

SLT_2_3
Yes
Yes
1
4096
No, return input as it is
3
No, generate error
No
NA
1
4076
Possibility to set Minimum/ maximum length
No
Left/Right settings
Yes
Internal IV
Yes, if Left/Right settings are non-zero
External IV
Yes
Yes
Token specific properties
None

The following table shows examples of the way in which a value will be tokenized with the Alpha token.

Table: Examples of Numeric tokenization values

Input ValueTokenized ValueComments
abcnvrAlpha, SLT_1_3, Left=0, Right=0, Length Preservation=Yes

The value has minimum length for SLT_1_3 tokenizer.
MATGiAlpha, SLT_2_3, Left=0, Right=0, Length Preservation=No

The value is padded up to 3 characters which is minimum length for SLT_2_3 tokenizer.
MAError. Input too short.Alpha, SLT_1_3, Left=0, Right=0, Length Preservation=Yes, Allow Short Data=No, generate error

Input value has only two alpha characters to tokenize, which is short for SLT_1_3 tokenizer when Length Preservation=Yes and Allow Short Data=No, generate error.
MA

MAC
MA

TGH
Alpha, SLT_1_3, Left=0, Right=0, Length Preservation=Yes, Allow Short Data=No, return input as it is

If the input value has less than three characters to tokenize, then it is returned as is else it is tokenized.
MATGAlpha, SLT_1_3, Left=0, Right=0, Length Preservation=Yes, Allow Short Data=Yes

Input value has only two alpha characters, which meets minimum length requirement for SLT_1_3 tokenizer when Length Preservation=Yes and Allow Short Data=Yes.
131 Summer Street, Bridgewater131 VDYgAK q

vMDUn, zAEXmwqWYNQG
Alpha, SLT_2_3, Left=0, Right=0, Length Preservation=No

Numeric characters, spaces and comma are treated as delimiters and not tokenized. Output value is longer than initial value.
Albert EinsteinSldGzm OOCTzSFoAlpha, SLT_1_3, Left=0, Right=0, Length Preservation=Yes

Space is treated as delimiters and not tokenized. Output value is the same length as initial value.
Albert EinsteinAjAkqD vvBFYLdoAlpha, SLT_1_3, Left=1, Right=0, Length Preservation=Yes

1 character from left remains in the clear.

Alpha Tokenization Properties for different protectors

Application Protector

The following table shows supported input data types for Application protectors with the Alpha token.

Note: For both SLT_1_3 and SLT_2_3, the maximum length of the protected data is 4096 bytes. This occurs for the Alpha token element for Application Protector with no length preservation.

Table: Supported input data types for Application protectors with Alpha token

Application Protectors*2AP Java*1AP Python
Supported input data typesBYTE[]

CHAR[]

STRING
BYTES

STRING

*1 - The API accepts and returns data in BYTE[] format. The customer application needs to convert the input into byte arrays before calling the API, and similarly, convert the output from byte arrays after receiving the response from the API.

*2 - The Protegrity Application Protector only supports bytes converted from the string data type. If any other data type is directly converted to bytes and passed as input to the Application Protector APIs that support byte as input and provide byte as output, then data corruption might occur.

For more information about Application protectors, refer to Application Protector.

Big Data Protector

Protegrity supports MapReduce, Hive, Pig, HBase, Spark, and Impala, which utilizes Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) or Ozone as the data storage layer. The data is protected from internal and external threats, and users and business processes can continue to utilize the secured data. Protegrity protects data inside the files using tokenization and strong encryption protection methods.

The following table shows supported input data types for Big Data protectors with the Alpha token.

Table: Supported input data types for Big Data protectors with Alpha token

Big Data ProtectorsMapReduce*2HivePigHBase*2ImpalaSpark*2Spark SQLTrino
Supported input data types*1BYTE[]CHAR*3

STRING
CHARARRAYBYTE[]STRINGBYTE[]

STRING
STRINGVARCHAR

*1 – If the input and output types of the API are BYTE[], then the customer application should convert the input to and output from the byte array, before calling the API.

*2– The Protegrity MapReduce protector, HBase coprocessor, and Spark protector only support bytes converted from the string data type. Data that is not converted to bytes from string data type might cause data corruption to occur when:

  • Any other data type is directly converted to bytes and passed as input to the MapReduce or Spark API that supports byte as input and provides byte as output.
  • Any other data type is directly converted to bytes and inserted in an HBase table. Where the HBase table is configured with the Protegrity HBase coprocessor.

*3 – If you are using the Char tokenization UDFs in Hive, then ensure that the data elements have length preservation selected. In Char tokenization UDFs, using data elements without length preservation selected, is not supported.

For more information about Big Data protectors, refer to Big Data Protector.

Data Warehouse Protector

The Protegrity Data Warehouse Protector is an advanced security solution designed to protect sensitive data at the column level. This enables you to secure your data, while still permitting access to authorized users. Additionally, the Data Warehouse Protector integrates seamlessly with existing database systems using the User-Defined Functions for an enhanced security. Protegrity protects data inside the data warehouses using various tokenization and encryption methods.

The following table shows the supported input data types for the Teradata protector with the Alpha token.

Table: Supported input data types for Data Warehouse protectors with Alpha token

Data Warehouse ProtectorsTeradata
Supported input data typesVARCHAR LATIN

For more information about Data Warehouse protectors, refer to Data Warehouse Protector.

Database Protectors

The following table shows supported input data types for Database protectors with the Alpha token.

Table: Supported input data types for Database protectors with Alpha token

ProtectorOracleMSSQL
Supported Input Data TypesVARCHAR2
CHAR
VARCHAR
CHAR

For more information about Database protectors, refer to Database Protectors


Last modified : March 31, 2026