Mockers

Mockers can be especially useful in the following situations:

1. To fill columns that contain directly identifiable information, such as Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

2. To fill columns that do not contain any data yet. Also, see: related FAQ question.

Apply a mocker

You can apply mockers in two different manners, via the Job Configuration tab, or via the PII tab.

Apply mocker via Job Configuration

You can apply a mocker on a column via the Job Configuration tab as follows:

1. Open your Workspace.

2. On the Job Configuration tab, select the column icon on the top left of the column where you want to apply a mocker.

3. Under Column settings > Generation Method, select Mocker to view the list of available mockers.

4. Select the Mocker that you wish to apply from the dropdown list of available mockers.

5. Set the relevant mocker parameters.

6. Select Confirm.

Selecting data type

Apply mocker via PII tab

You can apply a mocker on a column via the PII tab as follows: Identify PII columns manually.

Edit mock data settings

To edit any mock data settings you have applied previously:

1. Open your Workspace.

2. Now you can either:

   1. On the Job Configuration tab, select the column icon on the top left of the column where you want to edit a mocker.

   2. On the Job Configuration tab, under Applied steps, select the Edit icon next to the column name where you want to edit a mocker.

   3. On the PII tab, select the Edit icon behind the column where you want to edit a mocker.

3. Under Generation Method, define the parameters that you want to change.

4. Select Confirm.

Applied steps

Mocker parameters

When setting the parameters for a mocker, you have various options to tailor the data according to your needs. Here are the main mocker parameters that are shared across mockers:

1. Consistent mapping

   • Description: Enabling the consistent mapping allows you to generate the same mock data values for a given set of original data values every time the mocker is applied.

   • Options:

     • Enable: Turn on to consistently generate the same mock values for the same some original values.

     • Disable: Turn off consistent mapping to generate random mock data.

   • Considerations: It is possible that same original input value is consistently mapped to the same output mock value. For example, John and Mike in the original data can possibly both be mapped to Eric in the mock data.

   • Usage: When you need to consistently generate the same mock values for testing or demonstration purposes.

   For more information on consistent mapping, please check Consistent mapping.

2. Unique

   • Description: This option ensures that only unique values are generated in the specified column.

   • Options:

     • Enable: Turn on to generate only unique values.

     • Disable: Turn off to allow for repeated values.

   • Considerations: When the range of possible values is small, it may become impossible to generate unique values after a certain number of iterations.

   • Usage: When mocking columns that should contain distinct values like IDs or usernames.

Mock data settings

Available mockers

Mocker	Return type	Description
Aba	String	A 9-digit American Bankers Association routing number used for electronic transactions.
Address	String	A street address, including street name and number, city, state/province, and postal code.
AM or PM	String	Either 'AM' or 'PM'.
Android platform token	String	A 10-character Android platform token.
Ascii company email	String	An ASCII company email address.
ASCII email	String	An ASCII email address.
ASCII free email	String	An ASCII free email address.
ASCII safe email	String	An ASCII safe email address.
Bank country	String	A country that uses the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) system.
BBAN	String	A Basic Bank Account Number (BBAN) used in countries that do not use the IBAN system.
Boolean	Boolean	Either True or False.
Bs	String	A business slogan or catchphrase.
Building number	String	A building number.
Catch phrase	String	A catchphrase or slogan used by a company.
Century	String	A century, such as '19th' or '21st'.
City	String	A city name.
City suffix	String	A common suffix for city names, such as 'town' or 'ville'.
Color	String	A random color in hexadecimal format.
Color (HSL)	String	A random color using the HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness) color mode.
Color (HSV)	String	A random color using the HSV (Hue, Saturation, Value) color model.
Color (RGB)	String	A random color using the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color model.
Color name	String	A color name, such as 'red' or 'green'.
Company	String	A company name.
Company email	String	A company email address.
Company suffix	String	A common suffix for company names, such as 'Inc.' or 'Ltd.'.
Coordinate	String	A random geographical coordinate (latitude and longitude).
Country	String	A country name.
Country code	String	A two-letter country code, such as 'US' or 'GB'.
Credit card number	String	A valid credit card number.
Credit card provider	String	A credit card provider name, such as 'Visa' or 'MasterCard'.
Credit card security code	String	A security code for a credit card.
Cryptocurrency	String	A cryptocurrency name.
Cryptocurrency code	String	A cryptocurrency code, such as 'BTC' or 'ETH'.
Cryptocurrency name	String	A cryptocurrency name.
Currency	String	A currency name.
Currency code	String	A three-letter currency code, such as 'USD' or 'EUR'.
Currency name	String	A currency name.
Currency symbol	String	A random currency symbol.
Day of month	String	A day of the month, from 1 to 31.
Day of week	String	A day of the week, such as 'Monday' or 'Friday'.
Domain name	String	A domain name, such as 'example.com'.
Domain word	String	A single word that could be used in a domain name.
File extension	String	A random file extension from a set of common file types.
File name	String	A random file name including an extension.
File path	String	A random file path, optionally including a file name at the end.
Firefox	String	A user agent string for the Firefox browser.
First name	String	A first name.
First name female	String	A female first name.
First name male	String	A male first name.
First name nonbinary	String	A non-binary first name.
Free email	String	A free email address.
Free email domain	String	A domain name used for free email addresses.
Hex color	String	A hexadecimal color code, such as '#FF0000'.
Host name	String	A random host name for a website or a networked device.
HTTP method	String	An HTTP method, such as 'GET' or 'POST'.
HTTP status code	String	A random HTTP status code from a list of commonly used codes.
IANA ID	String	An Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) ID.
IBAN	String	An International Bank Account Number (IBAN).
Internet explorer	String	A user agent string for the Internet Explorer browser.
Ios platform token	String	An Apple iOS platform token.
IPv4	String	An IPv4 address.
IPV4 network class	String	The network class of an IPv4 address.
IPv4 private	String	A private IPv4 address.
IPv4 public	String	A public IPv4 address.
IPv6	String	An IPv6 address.
ISBN-10	String	An ISBN-10 book identifier.
ISBN-13	String	An ISBN-13 book identifier.
Job	String	A job title, such as "Marketing Manager" or "Software Engineer".
Language code	String	A language code, such as "en" for English or "fr" for French, based on the ISO 639-1 standard.
Language name	String	The name of a language, such as "English" or "French", based on the ISO 639-1 standard.
Last name	String	A last name, such as "Smith" or "Garcia".
Last name female	String	A last name suitable for a female person, such as "Johnson" or "Gonzalez".
Last name male	String	A last name suitable for a male person, such as "Smith" or "Rodriguez".
Last name nonbinary	String	A last name suitable for a nonbinary person, such as "Taylor" or "Lee".
Latitude	Decimal	A randomly generated latitude coordinate in the range of -90.0 to 90.0.
Latitude	Decimal	A randomly generated longitude coordinate in the range of -180.0 to 180.0.
Latitude longitude	Decimal	A tuple of (latitude, longitude) coordinates.
License plate	String	A randomly generated license plate number.
Linux platform token	String	A randomly generated Linux platform token.
Linux processor	String	A randomly generated Linux processor name.
Locale	String	A randomly generated locale string.
Localized ean13	String	A randomly generated localized EAN-13 barcode number.
Localized ean8	String	A randomly generated localized EAN-8 barcode number.
Longitude	Decimal	A randomly generated longitude coordinate in the range of -180.0 to 180.0.
Mac address	String	A randomly generated MAC address.
Mac platform token	String	A randomly generated macOS platform token.
Mac processor	String	A randomly generated macOS processor name.
MD5	Bytes, String	A randomly generated MD5 hash.
Month	String	A randomly generated month number in the range of 1 to 12.
Month name	String	A randomly generated month name.
Name	String	A randomly generated full name.
Name female	String	A randomly generated female full name.
Name male	String	A randomly generated male full name.
Name nonbinary	String	A randomly generated non-binary full name.
Null boolean	Boolean	A randomly generated boolean value or null.
Opera	String	A randomly generated Opera browser user agent string.
Phone number	String	A randomly generated phone number.
Port number	Integer	A random network port number typically used for computer networking.
Postcode	String	A randomly generated postal code.
Prefix	String	A randomly generated name prefix.
Prefix female	String	A randomly generated female name prefix.
Prefix male	String	A randomly generated male name prefix.
Prefix nonbinary	String	A randomly generated non-binary name prefix.
Pricetag	String	A randomly generated price tag in a format like $12.34.
Pybool	Boolean	A randomly generated Python boolean value.
Random digit	Integer	A randomly generated digit character.
Random digit not null	Integer	A randomly generated non-zero digit character.
Random digit not null or empty	String	A randomly generated non-zero digit character or an empty string.
Random digit or empty	String	A randomly generated digit character or an empty string.
Random letter	String	A randomly generated letter character.
Random lowercase letter	String	A randomly generated lowercase letter character.
Random uppercase letter	String	A randomly generated uppercase letter character.
Rgb color	String	A randomly generated RGB color in the format of (r, g, b).
Rgb css color	String	A randomly generated RGB color in the format of "rgb(r, g, b)".
Ripe id	String	A randomly generated RIPE network identifier.
Safari	String	A randomly generated Safari browser user agent string.
Safe color name	String	A randomly generated safe color name.
Safe domain name	String	A randomly generated safe domain name.
Safe email	String	A randomly generated safe email address.
Safe hex color	String	A randomly generated safe hex color.
SHA-1	Bytes, String	A randomly generated SHA1 hash.
SHA-256	Bytes, String	A randomly generated SHA256 hash.
SSN	String	A randomly generated US Social Security number.
Street address	String	A randomly generated street address.
Street name	String	A randomly generated street name.
Street suffix	String	A randomly generated street suffix.
Suffix	String	A randomly generated name suffix.
Suffix female	String	A randomly generated female name suffix.
Suffix male	String	A randomly generated male name suffix.
Suffix nonbinary	String	A randomly generated non-binary name suffix.
Swift	String	A randomly generated SWIFT/BIC code.
Swift11	String	A randomly generated 11-character SWIFT/BIC code.
Swift8	String	A randomly generated 8-character SWIFT/BIC code.
Time	String	A random time of day.
Timezone	String	A string representing a timezone, such as "America/New_York" or "UTC".
Tld	String	A top-level domain name, such as "com", "org", or "net".
Unix time	Decimal	A random Unix timestamp, representing the number of seconds since the Unix epoch (January 1, 1970).
Uri	String	A complete URI, including scheme, hostname, path, and query parameters.
Uri extension	String	A file extension, such as ".html" or ".pdf", suitable for use in a URI.
Uri page	String	A URI path component suitable for use as a page name or ID, such as "/about" or "/products/123".
URL	String	A complete URL, including scheme, hostname, path, query parameters, and fragment identifier.
User agent	String	A string representing a user agent, such as "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/58.0.3029.110 Safari/537.3".
User name	String	A string representing a username, typically in the form "firstname.lastname" or "firstnamelastname".
UUID	UUID	A string representing a UUID (universally unique identifier) in version 4 format, such as "c4015ce3-5eaa-49fe-9ebd-59e683f28588".
VAT ID	String	A random VAT ID. Only supported for specific locales.
Windows platform token	String	A string representing a version of the Windows operating system, such as "Windows NT 10.0" or "Windows 8.1".
Year	String	A random year between 1 AD and the current year.

Advanced mockers

Custom text

Return type	Description
String	Generate a string with each placeholder in custom text replaced according to the following rules: Number signs (‘#’) are replaced with a random digit (0 to 9). Question marks (‘?’) are replaced with a random character from letters. By default, letters contains all ASCII letters, uppercase and lowercase.

Example

If you configure:

Custom text as: Product Number: ??-## 
Letters as: abc

The results will be:

Product Number: aa-59, 
Product Number: cb-96, 
Product Number: ac-96,
...

Custom integer

Return type

Description

Integer

Generate numeric values with each placeholder in custom integer replaced according to the following rules: Number signs (‘#’) are replaced with a random digit (0 to 9). Percent signs (‘%’) are replaced with a random non-zero digit (1 to 9). Dollar signs (‘$’) are replaced with a random digit above two (2 to 9). Additionally, any digits between 0 and 9 can be used in the pattern, apart from 0 as the first character. For example, '%#$#' will create a 4 digit number following the rules above.

Example

If you configure:

Custom Integer as: %#$# 

The results will be:

1188,
6894,
3870,
...

Date

Return type	Description
Date	A random date object between two specified date objects, from year until days.

Example

If you configure:

03/11/2024 to 05/11/2024

The results will be:

2024-11-04,
2024-11-03,
2024-11-03,
...

Date/Time

Return type	Description
Datetime	A random datetime object between two specified datetime objects, from year until seconds.

Example

If you configure:

03/11/2024 06:00:00 to 05/11/2024 22:00:00

The results will be:

2024-11-05 08:52:41.340181,
2024-11-04 11:44:02.440943,
2024-11-03 21:43:52.323659,
...

DatetimeString

Return type	Description
String	A random string between two specified datetime objects, from year until seconds. Parameters: Format: Format of the datetime string (year-month-day by default).

Example

If you configure:

03/11/2024 06:00:00 to 05/11/2024 22:00:00

Date Format as: %d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S 

The results will be:

03/11/2024 15:11:09,
05/11/2024 12:42:19,
04/11/2024 17:56:51
...

JSON

Return type

Description

JSON

This mocker uses Faker to create randomized, complex JSON data, simulating real-world scenarios with specified data types across fields. Parameters: data_columns(dict): Specification for the data structure num_rows(int): Number of rows the returned indent(int): number of spaces to indent the fields cls(json.JSONEncoder): Optional JSON encoder to use for non-standard objects such as datetimes Returns: A string representation of the generated JSON data. For more information, refer to the Faker documentation.

Example

If you configure:

{"Name":"name", "Address":"address"}

The results will be:

{"Name": "Rebecca Crawford", "Address": "USCGC Harrell\nFPO AP 64614"},
{"Name": "Mark Ayala", "Address": "979 Clay Vista Apt. 789\nNew Zacharymouth, NC 40691"},
{"Name": "Stephanie Chaney", "Address": "852 Debbie Valley\nBrittanystad, FM 41302"}

Custom Sampler (string, integer or float)

Return type	Description
String or Numeric (depending on provided values)	A random string object, sampled from a provided list of input values. Parameters: values (comma separated values): The list of values to sample from. Returns: A randomly sampled value from values.

Example

If you configure:

values1, values2, values3

1, 25, 99

0.1, 2.5, 99

The results will be:

values3,
values1,
values2,
...

99,
25,
1,
...

99.0,
0.1,
2.5,
...

Uniform Distribution (float)

Return type

Description

Decimal

Generates a random float between two given values. Parameters: min_value (float): The minimum value of the float (inclusive). max_value (float): The maximum value of the float (exclusive). precision (int, optional): The number of decimal places to include in the float (default is 10, which generates a float with up to 10 decimal places). Returns: A random float between min_value and max_value, with precision decimal places.

Example

If you configure:

Minimum as: 1
Maximum as: 10
Decimal as: 3

The results will be:

9.052,
1.844,
7.416,
...

Uniform Distribution (int)

Return type	Description
Integer	uniform_integer: Generates a random integer between two given values. Parameters: min_value (int): The minimum value of the integer (inclusive). max_value (int): The maximum value of the integer (exclusive). Returns: A random integer between min_value and max_value.

Example

If you configure:

Minimum as: 5
Maximum as: 10

The results will be:

9,
5,
7,
...

Numeric Series

Return type	Description
	Numeric Series: Generates integer series at given steps. Parameters: Start (int): The minimum value of the integer (inclusive). Step (int): The step at a size integer series will continue. Returns: Integer series starting at Start with Steps. If Start = 2 and Steps = 3, then series will be 2,5,8,11...

Example

If you configure:

Start: 3
Step: 5

The results will be:

2,
7,
12,
...

Supported languages

Syntho supports each mocker in multiple different languages. For the complete list of supported languaged, see the following section:

Supported languages

The default language used by each mocker is English (United States). In case a language is not available for a particular mocker, the mocker will revert back to this language.

Limitations & Considerations

• Constraints on Key Columns: Mockers cannot be applied to primary key or foreign key columns.

• Column-by-Column Operation: Mockers function on individual columns. At this point, they can't be used to preserve logical relationships across multiple columns.

• Automatically Cutoff Values: The Syntho platform automatically cuts off generated mock string/text values based on the data type's supported length. For example, a mocker applied on an NVARCHAR(5) column, will cutoff all values beyond the first 5 characters of the string.

• Automatically Clip Values: The Syntho platform automatically clips numerical values that exceed the maximum or minimum size, to the largest or smallest value supported by the data type, respectively.

• No Link with Original Records: Mockers do not link back to the original data records, enhancing privacy but potentially reducing the usefulness of the data. If you want to retain the link with the original values, you can enable the Consistent Mapping feature.

• Database Type Compatibility: The return type of a mocker indicates its compatibility with specific database data types. For example, a mocker with a String return type is compatible with database types like (N)VARCHAR or TEXT, but not with a database type INTEGER. It is important to this into account when applying mockers on your columns to prevent your data generation job to fail.

Being aware of these limitations and considerations will help you effectively use mockers while understanding their constraints.