Matt Miller (#4) (4/1/2010)

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Ric Sierra (3/24/2010)

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vk-kirov (3/23/2010)

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Ric Sierra (3/22/2010)

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this undocumented function is available since SQLServer 7

PWDENCRYPT is a hash function, which means it's a one-way function. Once hashed, data cannot be restored. With cell-level encryption, data can be both encrypted and decrypted.

Is a semantic issue. The question is open, looking for the SQL Server version where Encryption (call as you wish: Hash function, two way encryption, masking, obfuscating, base64) can be done.

Sorry - i have to bite on this one: under which circumstances do any of the following qualify as "encryption"

- Base64 (it's an enCODING technique, it's certainly NOT an encryption method)

- Obfuscation (the process of making names of constructs and objects very confusing so that code becomes difficult to follow)

- hash function: a function to turn a variable length value to an integer to speed up comparison.

Calling those things the same thing as "encryption" is really comparing apples to oranges.