Appendix A: Text Formatting
A keyboard entry using normal text entry is straightforward. However, once an input mask is applied, the behavior of the keyboard needs to change to accommodate the input mask's requirement. When working with masks, any literal characters in the mask will be "skipped" by any cursor movement, including cursor, backspace, and delete keys.
When operating with a mask, the mask should be displayed with placeholders. The
When working with ranges specified by the [] mask, the keyboard allows you to enter a number between the values listed in the ranges. If a user enters a value that is larger than the maximum, the maximum number of
Example 1: If you type "125" into a field accepting
Example 2: If the max for the field was 20, then the values displayed will be "1", "12", "5".
When data overflows from a numerical field, the overflow value is added to the previous field on the chain if the overflow character was specified. In the above example, if the overflow flag was set, the first example will place the "1" into the previous logical field and the second example will place "12" in the previous logical field. If the overflow field already contains a value, the new value will be inserted to the right of the current characters and the overflow field will be evaluated. Overflow continues to work until a field with no overflow value is set or no more fields remain (i.e. reached first field).
If a character is typed and that character appears in the Next Field list, the keyboard should move the focus to the next field. For example, when entering time, a ":" is used as a next field character. If you enter "1:2", the 1 is entered in the current field (hours) and then the focus is moved to the next field and 2 is entered in that field.
When entering time in a
Input mask output examples
The following are some common input masking examples:
Output Examples
Common Name | Input Mask | Input |
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IP Address Quad | [0255]{.} | Any value from 0 to 255 |
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Hour | [112]{:} | Any value from 1 to 12 |
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Minute/Second | [059]{:} | Any value from 0 to 59 |
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Frames | [029]{:} | Any value from 0 to 29 |
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Phone Numbers | (999) | (555) |
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Zip Code | ||
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160 |