The EditMask edit style

Sometimes users need to enter data that has a fixed format. For example, in North America phone numbers have a 3-digit area code, followed by three digits, followed by four digits. You can define an edit mask that specifies the format to make it easier for users to enter values:

Shown is an example of a field with an edit mask.

Edit masks consist of special characters that determine what can be entered in the column. They can also contain punctuation characters to aid users.

For example, to make it easier for users to enter phone numbers in the proper format, specify this mask:

(###) ###-####

When you insert a row in a form, the punctuation characters display in the box and the cursor jumps over them as you type:

In a gray rectangle, the sample shows the word Phone : To its right is a white rectangle displaying ( space ).

Special characters and keywords

Most edit masks use the same special characters as display formats, and there are special considerations for using numeric, string, date, and time masks. For information, see “Defining display formats”.

The special characters you can use in string edit masks are different from those you can use in string display formats.

**Table 8-9: Special characters for string edit masks**
Character	Meaning
!	Uppercase – displays all characters with letters in uppercase
^	Lowercase – displays all characters with letters in lowercase
#	Number – displays only numbers
a	Alphanumeric – displays only letters and numbers
X	Any character – displays all characters

If you use the “#” or “a” special characters in a mask, Unicode characters, spaces, and other characters that are not alphanumeric do not display.

Semicolons invalid in EditMask edit styles In a display format, you can use semicolons to separate sections in number, date, time, and string formats. You cannot use semicolons in an EditMask edit style.

Keyboard behavior

Note the following about how certain keystrokes behave in edit masks:

Both Backspace and Shift + Backspace delete the preceding character.
Delete deletes everything that is selected.
Non-numeric edit masks treat any characters that do not match the mask pattern as delimiters.

Also, note certain behavior in Date edit masks:

Entering zero for the day or month causes the next valid date to be entered. For example, if the edit mask is DD/MM/YY, typing 00/11/01 results in 01/11/01. You can override this behavior in the development environment by adding the following lines to your IM.INI file:
```
[Edit Mask Behaviors]
AutocompleteDates=no
```
You cannot use a partial mask, such as dd or mmm, in a date edit mask. Any mask that does not include any characters representing the year will be replaced by a mask that does.
The strings 00/00/00 or 00/00/0000 are interpreted as the NULL value for the column.

Using the Mask pop-up menu

Click the button to the right of the Mask box on the Mask property page to display a list that contains complete masks that you can click to add to the mask box, as well as special characters that you can use to construct your own mask. For example, the menu for a Date edit mask contains complete masks such as mm/dd/yy and dd/mmm/yyyy. It also has components such as dd and jjj (for a Julian day). You might use these to construct a mask like dd-mm-yy, typing in the hyphens as separators.

Using masks with “as is” characters

You can define a mask that contains “as is” characters that always appear in the control or column. For example, you might define a numeric mask such as Rs0000.00 to represent Indian rupees in a currency column.

However, you cannot enter a minus sign to represent negative numbers in a mask that contains “as is” characters, and the # special character is treated as a 0 character. As a result, if you specify a mask such as ###,##0.00EUR, a value such as 45,000 Euros would display with a leading zero: 045,000.00EUR. Note that you must always specify a mask that has enough characters to display all possible data values. If the mask does not have enough characters, for example if the mask is #,##0.00 and the value is 45000, the result is unpredictable.

The preferred method of creating a currency editmask is to use the predefined [currency(7)] - International mask. You can change the number in parentheses, which is the number of characters in the mask including two decimal places. When you use this mask, InfoMaker uses the currency symbol and format defined in the regional settings section of the Windows control panel. You can enter negative values in a column that uses a currency mask.

Using spin controls

You can define an edit mask as a spin control, a box that contains up and down arrows that users can click to cycle through fixed values. For example, you can set up a code table that provides the valid entries in a column; users simply click an arrow to select an entry. Used this way, a spin control works like a drop-down list that displays one value at a time:

For more about code tables, see “Defining a code table”.

To use an EditMask edit style:

Select EditMask in the Style Type box if it is not already selected.
Define the mask in the Mask box. Click the special characters in the pop-up menu to use them in the mask. To display the pop-up menu, click the button to the right of the Mask box.
Specify other properties for the edit mask.

When you use your EditMask, check its appearance and behavior. If characters do not appear as you expect, you might want to change the font size or the size of the EditMask.