EditMask – PB Docs 2022

Sometimes users need to enter data that has a fixed format. For
example, U.S. and Canadian phone numbers have a three-digit area code,
followed by three digits, followed by four digits. You can use an
EditMask control that specifies that format to make it easier for
users to enter values. Think of an EditMask control as a smart
SingleLineEdit: it knows the format of the data that can be
entered.

An edit mask consists of special characters that determine what
can be entered in the box. An edit mask can also contain punctuation
characters to aid the user.

For example, to make it easier for users to enter phone numbers
in the proper format, you can specify the following mask, where #
indicates a number:

At runtime, the punctuation characters (the parentheses and
dash) display in the box and the cursor jumps over them as the user
types.

Masks in EditMask controls in windows work in a similar way to
masks in display formats and in the EditMask edit style in DataWindow
objects. For more information about specifying masks, see the
discussion of display formats in Displaying and Validating
Data.

Validation for EditMask
controls

The EditMask control checks the validity of a date when you
enter it, but if you change a date so that it is no longer valid, its
validity is not checked when you tab away from the control. For
example, if you enter the date 12/31/2016 in an EditMask control with
the mask mm/dd/yyyy, you can delete the 1 in 12, so that the date
becomes 02/31/2016. To catch problems like this, add validation code
to the LoseFocus event for the control.

Keyboard behavior

Some keystrokes have special behavior in EditMask controls. For
more information, see The EditMask edit
style.

Using a drop-down
calendar

You can use a drop-down calendar that is similar to the
DatePicker control in EditMask controls that have a Date or DateTime
edit mask. The user can choose to edit the date in the control or to
select a date from a drop-down calendar.

To specify that an EditMask control uses a drop-down calendar to
display and set dates, select the Drop-down Calendar check box on the
Mask page in the Properties view. You can set display properties for
the calendar on the Calendar page. Users navigate and select dates
within the calendar as they do in the calendar in a DatePicker
control.

Using spin controls

You can define an EditMask as a spin control, which is an edit
control that contains up and down arrows that users can click to cycle
through fixed values. For example, assume you want to allow your users
to select how many copies of a report to print. You could define an
EditMask as a spin control that allows users to select from a range of
values.

For more information on the options for spin controls,
right-click in any tab page in the Properties view and select Help
from the pop-up menu.