Test Masking without Tmaskedit

[Petrus Vorster]

Hi All

Thank you for all the help so far!
I dont like the Tmaskedit control with its little markers.
I know it took a bit of code back in VB, so it will probably be shorter in Pascal.

I need to limit a Tedit to the following mask LL#########LL
13 characters, TWO LETTERS, 9 NUMBERS, TWO letters. (Tracking numbers)

I truly appreciate all the help! I have made a lot of progress in a very short time.

Regards,

Peter

[Thaddy]

Try TRegExpr with the following pattern:

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. '^[A-Za-z]{2}\d{9}[A-Za-z]{2}$'

Example:

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. {$ifdef fpc}{$mode delphi}{$endif}
2. uses
3.  RegExpr;
4.  
5. var
6.   R:TRegExpr;
7. begin
8.   R:=TRegExpr.create('^[A-Za-z]{2}\d{9}[A-Za-z]{2}$');
9.   try
10.     writeln(R.Exec('LL123456789KK')); // true
11.     writeln(R.Exec('L123456789KK'));  // false
12.     writeln(R.Exec('GG123456789kk')); // true
13.     writeln(R.Exec('LL123489KKKKK')); // false
14.   finally
15.     R.Free;
16.   end;
17.   readln;
18. end.

You can subsequently validate a normal TEdit with the above expression code.
If only capitals are allowed the expression becomes:

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. '^[A-Z]{2}\d{9}[A-Z]{2}$'
2.     writeln(R.Exec('GG123456789kk')); // would then return false

[Thaddy]

Something like

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. unit Unit1;
2.  
3. {$mode objfpc}{$H+}
4.  
5. interface
6.  
7. uses
8.   Classes, SysUtils, Forms, Controls, Graphics, Dialogs, StdCtrls, RegExpr;
9.  
10. type
11.   { TForm1 }
12.   TForm1 = class(TForm)
13.     Button1: TButton;
14.     Edit1: TEdit;
15.     procedure Button1Exit(Sender: TObject);
16.     procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
17.     procedure FormDestroy(Sender: TObject);
18.   private
19.     R:TRegExpr;
20.   public
21.  
22.   end;
23.  
24. var
25.   Form1: TForm1;
26.  
27. implementation
28.  
29. {$R *.lfm}
30.  
31. { TForm1 }
32. // also set TEdit.CharCase to ecUpperCase.
33. procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
34. begin
35.   R:=TRegExpr.create('^[A-Z]{2}\d{9}[A-Z]{2}$');
36. end;
37.  
38. procedure TForm1.Button1Exit(Sender: TObject);
39. begin
40.   If R.Exec(Edit1.Text) = true then
41.     ShowMessage('This input is valid ')
42.   else
43.     ShowMessage('This input is not valid ')
44. end;
45.  
46. procedure TForm1.FormDestroy(Sender: TObject);
47. begin
48.   R.Free;
49. end;
50.  
51. end.

  Q&D...

[jamie]

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. procedure TForm1.Edit1KeyDown(Sender: TObject; var Key: Word; Shift: TShiftState
2.   );
3. begin
4.   If Key in [VK_back,VK_LEFT,VK_RIGHT,VK_LSHIFT,VK_RSHIFT,VK_CAPITAL] THen exit;
5.   If Sender is TEdit then with TEdit(Sender) do
6.   Begin
7.     if length(Caption) = 13 Then Begin Key := 0;Beep; Exit End;
8.     If (selStart in [0..1,11..12]) Then
9.        Begin
10.         If Not (Key in [VK_A..VK_Z]) Then Begin beep; Key := 0; End;
11.         Exit;
12.        end;
13.    if SelStart in [2..10] Then
14.       If Not (Key in [VK_0..VK_9]) Then Begin Key := 0;Beep; End;
15.   End;
16. End;
17.  
18.  
19.  

Include the "LclType" unit

[Petrus Vorster]

Thanks fellows.

The last example gives me a bundle of errors. (Still need to go see why)
The top two validates on exit. They work, but i am trying to force correct entry as we go.
(Like a masked edit would do)
Perhaps a simpler question, can we prevent the Maskedit from showing the lines ?

Thanks for all the support.

-Peter

[Petrus Vorster]

Back in my Vb days i created a case statement on the keydown.

The maxlen on the control will handle the length limitation of the text.
I verified the length of the text as it is typed, then on :
characters 1&2 allow ALPHABET, characters 3-11 NUmbers and then 12 &13 again letters.

I haven't gotten to CASE statements & text lengths yet (learning fast, but it will be a while), so if you can perhaps point me in that direction i should get there!

Thanks mates.

[Petrus Vorster]

I came up with a rudimentary IF solution.
I am quite certain that it can be much improved in a CASE statement.

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. procedure TForm1.Edit5KeyPress(Sender: TObject; var Key: char);
2.  
3. begin
4.   if length(edit5.Text) <= 1 then
5.   begin
6.    if not (Key in ['a'..'z', 'A'..'Z', '.', #8, #9]) then Key := #0;
7.    end;
8.   if (length(edit5.text) > 1) and (length(edit5.text) <= 10) then
9.   begin
10.    if not (Key in ['0'..'9', '.', #8, #9]) then Key := #0;
11.   end;
12.   if length(edit5.Text) >=11 then
13.   begin
14.    if not (Key in ['a'..'z', 'A'..'Z', '.', #8, #9]) then Key := #0;
15.   end;
16. end;      

I know this is not the best method. Some pointers on making it better would be much appreciated.

-Peter

[Khrys]

I highly encourage every programmer to look into regular expressions; when used (in moderation!), regexes can be extremely useful for search, replace and validation operations (just don't use it for extended parsing).
Here's a pretty cool interactive website for testing regular expressions; I put in Thaddy's regex, which does exactly what you need.

[jamie]

I highly encourage every programmer to look into regular expressions; when used (in moderation!), regexes can be extremely useful for search, replace and validation operations (just don't use it for extended parsing).
Here's a pretty cool interactive website for testing regular expressions; I put in Thaddy's regex, which does exactly what you need.

Go ahead, you can have it.

 All the script kiddies will love you.

[Khrys]

Go ahead, you can have it.

 All the script kiddies will love you.

That's why I wrote "in moderation" 
Regex syntax is terribly terse and opaque to those who haven't joined the cult, after all...

[Zvoni]

Back in my Vb days i created a case statement on the keydown.

The maxlen on the control will handle the length limitation of the text.
I verified the length of the text as it is typed, then on :
characters 1&2 allow ALPHABET, characters 3-11 NUmbers and then 12 &13 again letters.

I haven't gotten to CASE statements & text lengths yet (learning fast, but it will be a while), so if you can perhaps point me in that direction i should get there!

Thanks mates.

It‘s possible with regex to evaluate on the fly during entering text, but you have to build the pattern dynamically, keeping an eye on the position and total length

[Joanna]

Hi All

Thank you for all the help so far!
I dont like the Tmaskedit control with its little markers.
I know it took a bit of code back in VB, so it will probably be shorter in Pascal.

I need to limit a Tedit to the following mask LL#########LL
13 characters, TWO LETTERS, 9 NUMBERS, TWO letters. (Tracking numbers)

I truly appreciate all the help! I have made a lot of progress in a very short time.

Regards,

Peter

I use mask edit but I never noticed any markers. What do they look Like?

[Thaddy]

All the script kiddies will love you.

It is not script, but compiled to specialized p-code.

[Thaddy]

I am quite certain that it can be much improved in a CASE statement.

Like so?

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1.   case length(Edit5.Text) of
2.   1..2,11..12:if not (Key in [#8, #9,'A'..'Z','a'..'z' ]) then Key := #0;
3.   3..10:if not (Key in [#8,#9,'.', '0'..'9']) then Key := #0;
4.   else
5.     Key := #0;
6.   end;

[Zvoni]

And since TS is using KeyPress (Down/Up?)-Event, i'm going to throw a spanner into it by using Copy/Paste to insert an illegal entry into the TextBox....