Thanks, Obscuring the number is not a problem, but I think they want to be able to read the number off the ticket at the end of the day in sequential order and I don't see how I can come up with a simple way to do this.

Frank.

Frank Cazabon

On 10/10/2018 03:48 PM, Richard Kaye wrote:
One way is to come up with a 10 letter "word" with each letter representing a 
digit. You then convert the numeric sequence to alpha characters. And to avoid the 
pattern being too easily spotted, add one or  more random characters to the final string. 
It's not the most robust encryption scheme in the world but it should obscure it enough. 
Here's a bit of VFP code to do this using the non-dictionary phrase MONKEYSHIP as the 
rebus. Pass it the number to encode and optionally .t. as the second parameter to append 
a single random character at the end.

**************************************
*      Program: MONKEYSHIP.PRG
*         Date: 05/07/2007 03:26 PM
*  VFP Version: Visual FoxPro 09.00.0000.7423 for Windows
*        Notes:
**************************************
FUNCTION MonkeyShip(m.tnStringToEncode AS Number, m.tlRandom AS Boolean)
LOCAL m.lcRetval AS Character
m.lcStringToEncode=ALLTRIM(TRANSFORM(m.tnStringToEncode,[999999999999999]))
LOCAL ARRAY laRebus[10,2]
m.laRebus[1,1]=1
m.laRebus[1,2]=[M]
m.laRebus[2,1]=2
m.laRebus[2,2]=[O]
m.laRebus[3,1]=3
m.laRebus[3,2]=[N]
m.laRebus[4,1]=4
m.laRebus[4,2]=[K]
m.laRebus[5,1]=5
m.laRebus[5,2]=[E]
m.laRebus[6,1]=6
m.laRebus[6,2]=[Y]
m.laRebus[7,1]=7
m.laRebus[7,2]=[S]
m.laRebus[8,1]=8
m.laRebus[8,2]=[H]
m.laRebus[9,1]=9
m.laRebus[9,2]=[I]
m.laRebus[10,1]=0
m.laRebus[10,2]=[P]
m.lcRetval=[]
m.lcChar=[]
FOR m.x=1 TO LEN(ALLTRIM(m.lcStringToEncode))
        
m.lcChar=m.laRebus[ASCAN(m.laRebus,VAL(SUBSTR(m.lcStringToEncode,x,1)),1,-1,1,8),2]
        m.lcRetval=m.lcRetval+m.lcChar
NEXT
IF m.tlRandom
        LOCAL m.liCounter AS Integer
        PRIVATE m.pcRandomChar
        m.pcRandomChar=[ ]
        m.liCounter=1
*!* get a bunch of values to work with which will hopefully give at least one 
alpha not in monkeyship
        DO WHILE NOT ReturnRandom()
                m.liCounter=m.liCounter+1
                IF m.liCounter=10
                        EXIT
                ENDIF
        ENDDO
        IF m.liCounter=10       && we went through loop 10 times and could not 
get a char back
                m.lcRetval=[Q]+m.lcRetval
        ELSE
                m.lcRetval=m.pcRandomChar+m.lcRetval
        ENDIF
ENDIF
RETURN m.lcRetval
ENDFUNC

FUNCTION ReturnRandom
LOCAL m.lcRandomSeed AS Character, m.lIsGood AS Boolean
*!* get a bunch of values to work with which will hopefully give at least one 
alpha not in monkeyship
m.lcRandomSeed=SYS(2015)+SYS(2015)+SYS(2015)+SYS(2015)
m.lIsGood=.f.
FOR m.y=LEN(m.lcRandomSeed) TO 2 STEP -1        && don't need to check first 
char in sys(2015)
        IF ISALPHA(SUBSTR(m.lcRandomSeed,y,1)) AND NOT 
UPPER(SUBSTR(m.lcRandomSeed,y,1))$[MONKEYSHIP]
                m.pcRandomChar=SUBSTR(m.lcRandomSeed,y,1)
                m.lIsGood=.t.
                EXIT
        ELSE
                m.lIsGood=.f.
        ENDIF
NEXT
RETURN m.lIsGood
ENDFUNC

--

rk

-----Original Message-----
From: ProfoxTech <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Frank Cazabon
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2018 3:25 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Numbering Scheme

I have a client who issues tickets in numerical sequence (it's a pawnshop). The 
sequence helps them balance things back at the end of the day (read that as 
check for stealing) when checking the various parcels received for the tickets 
issued (they keep a copy of the ticket issued to their customer and at the end 
of the day sort them sequentially and read the numbers off the tickets to 
ensure they match the parcels). They are now not wanting the number printed on 
the ticket as their competitors may be able to get an idea from the sequential 
numbers how much business they are doing (by getting a ticket early in the 
morning and then one ate in the afternoon).

So, they have asked me to come up with a solution and I must admit that I am 
coming up blank.

Any ideas?



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