Masking character is defined as a non-printing characters used to protect data or prevent changes. Masking characters are typically used in conjunction with other characters to create a string of characters that can be interpreted by a computer or other device.
Masking characters are often used to create strings of printable characters, such as in the case of email addresses. In this instance, the “@” symbol is typically used as a masking character. The string “abcdefg” would then be interpreted as “abcdefg@example.com”.
Masking characters can also be used to create strings of non-printable characters. For example, the “^” character is often used as a masking character when creating strings of control characters. The string “^A” would be interpreted as the control character “Start of Header”.
Outside of the Text Analytics industry, the term “masking character” may be used in a variety of different ways. For example, some programming languages use the term to refer to a character that is used to hide the true value of a variable. In these cases, the masking character is typically used in conjunction with another character, such as an asterisk (*).
In some cases, the term “masking character” may also be used to refer to a character that is used to fill in missing data. For example, if a dataset contains missing values for a particular field, those values may be replaced with a masking character, such as an underscore (_).
It is important to note that the term “masking character” can have different meanings in different contexts. When used in the context of text analytics, it typically refers to a non-printing characters used to protect data or prevent changes. When used in other contexts, it may refer to a character that is used to hide the true value of a variable or fill in missing data.