GETHINT

The GETHINT function returns a hint for the password if a hint was embedded in the encrypted data. A password hint is a phrase that helps you remember the password with which the data was encrypted. For example, 'Ocean' might be used as a hint to help remember the password 'Pacific'.


>>-GETHINT(encrypted-data)-------------------------------------><

The schema is SYSIBM.

encrypted-data: An expression that returns a string that contains a complete, encrypted data string. encrypted-data must return a value that is a CHAR FOR BIT DATA, VARCHAR FOR BIT DATA, BINARY, or VARBINARY built-in data type. The string must have been encrypted using ENCRYPT_TDES function.

The result of the function is VARCHAR(32). The actual length of the result is the actual length of the hint that was provided when the data was encrypted.

The result can be null; if the argument is null, the result is the null value.

If no hint was specified when the ENCRYPT_TDES function was used to encrypt the data, the result is the null value.

The encoding scheme of the result is the same as the encoding scheme of encrypted-data. If encrypted-data is bit data, the CCSID of the result is the default character CCSID for that encoding scheme. Otherwise, the CCSID of the result is the same as the CCSID of encrypted-data.

For additional information about this function, see DECRYPT_BINARY, DECRYPT_BIT, DECRYPT_CHAR, and DECRYPT_DB and ENCRYPT_TDES.

Example: This example shows how to embed a hint for the password when encrypting data and how to later use the GETHINT function to retrieve the embedded hint. In this example, the hint 'Ocean' is used to help remember the encryption password 'Pacific'.

   INSERT INTO EMP (SSN) VALUES ENCRYPT_TDES ('289-46-8832','Pacific','Ocean');
   SELECT GETHINT (SSN) FROM EMP;

The value that is returned is 'Ocean'.