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Input Format (Input Mask)

 
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Input Format (Input Mask)
Mike007
15 Oct, 2007 - 12:03 PM
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What i need is a way to get input from the user, using what Microsoft likes to call a Input Mask, like you can set for Access databases. I would love to learn how to do that for GUI controllers, but what i really need is to learn how to do it with the termminal window. I use the Scanner class to get the user input here is what i want to do, user enters a number, i want it to be a 9 digit number (only number of exactly 9 digits would be accepted) and to be displayed like that:
xxx xxx xxx
123 456 789

not like that:
123456789

Kinda like when you enter a cd key.
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Martyr2
RE: Input Format (Input Mask)
15 Oct, 2007 - 01:31 PM
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Have you taken a look at the MaskFormatter object? Here is an example of how it works...

CODE

// Include our formatter in the javax package and the parse exception error object
import javax.swing.text.*;
import java.text.ParseException;

public class phonemask {
    public static void main(String args[]) {

        try {
            // Set the mask format
            MaskFormatter f = new MaskFormatter("### ###-####");

            // Tell it to use literals as well in the mask (the hyphen in our case)
            f.setValueContainsLiteralCharacters(false);

            // The number to then format and put it out as a string
            System.out.println(f.valueToString("1234567890"));
        }
        catch (ParseException p) { System.out.println(p.toString()); }
    }
}


Then all you got to do is make sure that it is the correct length. Enjoy! smile.gif

This post has been edited by Martyr2: 15 Oct, 2007 - 01:34 PM
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Mike007
RE: Input Format (Input Mask)
15 Oct, 2007 - 05:13 PM
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First of all thanks for the quick reply, but i was kinda looking for a way to input it like that not output. For output i can also use the DecimalFormatter class.
umm on second thought, can i also use it for inputing data(MaskFormatter)?

If i was creating a GUI program i would use 3 textboxes with the length of 3 and numbers only type, or something like that. Now i want to do something similar just in a terminal window, if you used Input Masks in Access before you would know what i mean.

This post has been edited by Mike007: 15 Oct, 2007 - 05:23 PM
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Martyr2
RE: Input Format (Input Mask)
15 Oct, 2007 - 09:29 PM
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No, you can't force the mask on the what the person inputs, just after they input you can format it to a certain format. That is because you don't raise events in a console program like a gui control which could evaluate what was entered and throw the value away if it wasn't correct (assuming that is what you are talking about).
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Mike007
RE: Input Format (Input Mask)
16 Oct, 2007 - 01:32 PM
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QUOTE(Martyr2 @ 15 Oct, 2007 - 10:29 PM) *

No, you can't force the mask on the what the person inputs, just after they input you can format it to a certain format. That is because you don't raise events in a console program like a gui control which could evaluate what was entered and throw the value away if it wasn't correct (assuming that is what you are talking about).


You are right, i thought that might be impossible. Ok so how do i use that format object to get the actual value, the number value, from a string.
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