Question

Information requested:

The company has decided to increase the security of our client's privacy by storing our SSN #s in a separate, encrypted database. The current database needs to have the SSN #s replaced with the format XXX-XX-####, so that the last four digits are still accessible for customer identity verification.

Assignment:

Provide the regex code that would be required to meet the task presented. Describe the relevance of the task: Were regular expressions the best or only way to approach the task? What other data or tasks could be used to increase effectiveness or better achieve the goal presented?

Python Code:

import csv
import re
data = []

with open('customerData.csv') as csvfile:
reader = csv.DictReader(csvfile)
for row in reader:
data.append(row)
print(data[0])
print(data[1]["Name"])
print(data[2]["Spent Past 30 Days"])

Name

Gender

SSN

Member Date

Phone

State

Zip

Email

Credit Card

Credit Card_Number

Credit Card Exp

Gender

Favorite Radio Station

Purchases Past 30 Days

Spent Past 30 Days

Purchases Past 6 Months

Spent Past 6 Months

Purchases Past 12 Months

Spent Past 12 Months

Mamie Mason

female

459-69-6647

Mon Aug 01 2016 12:06:01 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

9472284457

Indiana

82439-3619

[email protected]

Visa

4263xxxxxxxx1913

23-Sep

female

WMMZ

4

$2,149.81

7

$5,188.75

9

$10,756.50

Dr. Jorge Leonard

male

267-90-8144

10/17/2015

(482) 962-5537

Pennsylvania

44795

[email protected]

American Express

3430xxxxxxx6344

22-Jun

male

WLRS

4

$1,510.68

5

$3,679.59

15

$11,241.27

Sue Robertson

female

431-17-5882

Fri Jun 03 2016 01:34:30 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

(387) 395-7066

Virginia

97198

[email protected]

American Express

3446xxxxxxx4624

21-Sep

female

WING

4

$2,094.67

9

$6,289.29

13

$11,071.11

Gilbert Houston

male

469-80-8860

Wed May 02 2012 00:45:29 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

5776043558

Kentucky

59108-0390

[email protected]

Mastercard

5149xxxxxxxx7215

26-Jul

male

WOGV

0

$0

5

$3,167.44

6

$6,928.30

Answer 1

All the code related explanation is in the code comments. Hope this help!

Code:

import csv
import re
data = []

with open('customerData.csv') as csvfile:
# delimeter changed to tab as the csv file had tab instead of space
reader = csv.DictReader(csvfile, delimiter='\t')
for row in reader:
data.append(row)

# commented this out for better presentation of the required output
# print(data[0])
# print(data[1]["Name"])
# print(data[2]["Spent Past 30 Days"])

# loop for all the rows
for row in data:
  
# the sub() function replaces the regex as first argument
# to string given as second argument in the given string (3rd argument)
row["SSN"] = re.sub("\d{3}-\d{2}-", "XXX-XX-", row["SSN"])
  
# print name and ssn for sample output
print(row["Name"], row["SSN"])

Sample output:

Mamie Mason XXX-XX-6647 Dr. Jorge Leonard XXX-XX-8144 Sue Robertson XXX-XX-5882 Gilbert Houston XXX-XX-8860

Code screenshot:

import csv import re data = [] with open('customerData.csv') as csvfile: # delimeter changed to tab as the csv file had tab instead of space reader = csv.DictReader(csvfile, delimiter='\t') for row in reader: data.append( row) # commented this out for better presentation of the required output # print(data[0]). # print (data[1]["Name"]) # print(data[2]["Spent Past 30 Days" ]) # loop for all the rows for row in data: # the sub() function replaces the regex as first argument # to string given as second argument in the given string (3rd argument) row["SSN"] = re. sub("\d{3}-\d{2}-", "XXX-XX-", row["SSN"]). # print name and ssn for sample output print (row ["Name"], row["SSN"])

Were regular expressions the best or only way to approach the task? What other data or tasks could be used to increase effectiveness or better achieve the goal presented?

Regular expressions were the not the best way to approach the task as the data is itself in dictinary form where we can separately acces the SSN of each person. Regular expression first finds the pattern and then replaces. But in our case, the pattern is already found and stored at the "SSN" index => simple string manipulation can do the task, where we simply add XXX-XX- to the last 4 digits like this -

row["SSN"] = "XXX-XX-" + row["SSN"][-4:]