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Friday, July 10, 2009

Define Custom masking on Masked Text box


Hello, Masked Text box is a very rich control available. you can restricted user input and provide format to enter data.

you just have to set masked text box property.

you can get that property dialog box from property window as well as from arrow at the top of text box.

there are many predefined formats are available and you can also set user defined custom format with the use of following table.

Masking element


Description



0


Digit, required. This element will accept any single digit between 0 and 9.



9


Digit or space, optional.



#


Digit or space, optional. If this position is blank in the mask, it will be rendered as a space in the Text property. Plus (+) and minus (-) signs are allowed.



L


Letter, required. Restricts input to the ASCII letters a-z and A-Z. This mask element is equivalent to [a-zA-Z] in regular expressions.



?


Letter, optional. Restricts input to the ASCII letters a-z and A-Z. This mask element is equivalent to [a-zA-Z]? in regular expressions.



&


Character, required. If the AsciiOnly property is set to true, this element behaves like the "L" element.



C


Character, optional. Any non-control character. If the AsciiOnly property is set to true, this element behaves like the "?" element.



A


Alphanumeric, optional. If the AsciiOnly property is set to true, the only characters it will accept are the ASCII letters a-z and A-Z.



a


Alphanumeric, optional. If the AsciiOnly property is set to true, the only characters it will accept are the ASCII letters a-z and A-Z.



.


Decimal placeholder. The actual display character used will be the decimal placeholder appropriate to the format provider, as determined by the control's FormatProvider property.



,


Thousands placeholder. The actual display character used will be the thousands placeholder appropriate to the format provider, as determined by the control's FormatProvider property.



:


Time separator. The actual display character used will be the time placeholder appropriate to the format provider, as determined by the control's FormatProvider property.



/


Date separator. The actual display character used will be the date placeholder appropriate to the format provider, as determined by the control's FormatProvider property.



$


Currency symbol. The actual character displayed will be the currency symbol appropriate to the format provider, as determined by the control's FormatProvider property.



<


Shift down. Converts all characters that follow to lowercase.



>


Shift up. Converts all characters that follow to uppercase.



|


Disable a previous shift up or shift down.



\


Escape. Escapes a mask character, turning it into a literal. "\\" is the escape sequence for a backslash.



All other characters


Literals. All non-mask elements will appear as themselves within MaskedTextBox. Literals always occupy a static position in the mask at run time, and cannot be moved or deleted by the user.