SQL Server Function to Encrypt Integer Values

Problem

You need a simple and fast tool to encrypt and decrypt integer values without having to deal with complex encryption keys, certificates and other complex encryption methods. In this tip we cover a simple approach to encrypt integers.

Solution

I coded two very short and simple T-SQL functions that do integer encryption and decryption. The algorithms used are very simple and implement a simple arithmetic encryption algorithm that encrypts an integer value to a string using the one of these values (ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ).

The encryption algorithm:

1. Takes the modulo of the given integer number by 26 (the length of alphabet)
2. Finds the letter in the alphabet that in the position of the result and concatenates it to the result string
3. Divide the given number by 26 and continue with only the integer result
4. Continue steps 1,2,3 until the division result is 0
5. The resulting string is encrypted value

The decryption algorithm:

1. Take the given string and reverse it
2. Loop through all the characters of the string, from 1 to the length of the encrypted string
3. Find the position of that letter in the alphabet and multiply it by the power of 26 by the current index letter in the given string
4. Accumulate the results for each value into the decrypted number result
5. After the loop is finished the decrypted value is returned

Here is the T-SQL code:

Encryption Function

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.Encrypt2String (@Number2Encrypt INT)
RETURNS VARCHAR(30)
AS
BEGIN
 DECLARE @AlphabetCode VARCHAR(26)
 DECLARE @AlphabetLength INT = 26
 DECLARE @EncryptedString VARCHAR(30) = ''
 DECLARE @CurrDigitInNumber CHAR(1)
 SET @AlphabetCode = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'
 SET @EncryptedString = SUBSTRING(@AlphabetCode, (@Number2Encrypt % @AlphabetLength) + 1, 1)
 WHILE @Number2Encrypt > 0
 BEGIN
  SET @CurrDigitInNumber = SUBSTRING(@AlphabetCode, ((@Number2Encrypt / @AlphabetLength) % @AlphabetLength) + 1, 1)
  SET @Number2Encrypt = @Number2Encrypt / @AlphabetLength
  IF @Number2Encrypt != 0
   SET @EncryptedString = @CurrDigitInNumber + @EncryptedString
 END
 RETURN @EncryptedString
END
GO

Decryption Function

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.Decrypt2Number (@encryptString VARCHAR(7))
RETURNS INT
AS
BEGIN
 DECLARE @AlphabetCode VARCHAR(26)
 DECLARE @AlphabetLength INT = 26
 DECLARE @Idx INT = 0
 DECLARE @Letter CHAR(1)
 DECLARE @LetterValue INT
 DECLARE @ReversedEncryptString VARCHAR(7)
 DECLARE @DecryptedNumber INT = 0
 SET @ReversedEncryptString = REVERSE(@encryptString)
 SET @AlphabetCode = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'
 WHILE @Idx < LEN(@encryptString)
 BEGIN
  SET @Letter = SUBSTRING(@ReversedEncryptString, @Idx + 1, 1)
  SET @LetterValue = (CHARINDEX(@Letter, @AlphabetCode) - 1) * POWER(@AlphabetLength, @Idx)
  SET @DecryptedNumber = @DecryptedNumber + @LetterValue
  SET @Idx = @Idx + 1
 END
 RETURN @DecryptedNumber
END
GO

Here is an example of how to use these functions.

SELECT dbo.Encrypt2String(65536) 

The result is: DSYQ

SELECT dbo.Decrypt2Number('DSYQ')

The result is: 65536

Notes

These functions were tested using SQL Server 2012 and 2014 Developer edition, but should work on all versions and editions.

Next Steps

• You can modify the order of the letters in the @AlphabetCode string so the values are not in order like ABCDEFG…
• You can add other characters into the @AlphabetCode string such as numbers or other characters
• Use this to scramble IDs, SSNs, etc., but note that leading zeroes are removed when the value is decrypted.
• Use these functions like any other SQL Server function.

Eli Leiba

Eli Leiba is a senior application DBA at Israel Electric Company, a teacher at Microsoft CTEC, and a senior database consultant. With 19 years of experience working with both SQL Server and Oracle RDBMS. He is certified in Oracle and SQL Server database administration and implementation and has a B.S. in Computer Science. He can be reached at: iecdba@hotmail.com.

• MSSQLTips Awards: Rising Star (50+ tips) – 2019 | Author of the Year Contender – 2016-2019