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Using Laravel for Advanced String Manipulation in PHP

Obscuring Parts of a String

Learn how to obscure parts of a string with the help of examples.

We'll cover the following...

The mask helper method

It is a simple but handy string manipulation method. We can use this method to hide or obscure parts of an existing string.

PHP
<?php
/**
 * Versions: Laravel 8, 9
 *
 * @return string
 */
public static function mask(
      string $string,
      string $character,
         int $index,
    int|null $length = null,
      string $encoding = 'UTF-8'
);

One of the most common applications of this helper method is to only store and display the last four digits of a credit card number:

PHP
<?php
use Illuminate\Support\Str;
// Returns "************4242"
Str::mask(
    '4242424242424242',
    '*', 
    0, -4
);

In the previous example, we are using several parameters. We indicate that the masking should start at the first character by ...