Friday, August 1, 2003
From The Edge: Understanding Format Mask and Display Format in R:BASE 7.0 Section: General Chapter: Running R:BASE Your Way! Platform: R:BASE 7.0 for Windows Build: Update 54 and higher
Format Mask specifies the mask that represents what text is valid for the masked DB Edit and Variable Edit Controls in Form Designer. R:BASE 7.0 for Windows also supports Format Mask in DIALOG command such as asking Social Security Number, Phone Number, Extended Zip Code or better yet Credit Card Numbers.
Use Format Mask to restrict the characters a user can enter into the masked DB Edit, Variable EDIT or DIALOG for valid characters and formats. If the user attempts to enter an invalid character, the DB Edit Control, Variable Edit Control or DIALOG does not accept the character. Validation is performed on a character-by- character basis. Setting Format Mask to an empty string removes the Format Mask.
Using Format Mask option, you can have user enter values in one way using the Format Mask, but the actual values can be saved different way. For example a phone number can be entered as (123) 456-7890 but stored as 1234567890.
Display Format controls the formatting of the DB Label, Variable Label, DB Calc and System Variables for display purposes in Report Designer.
Use Display Format to specify the formatting string to use for formatting the value in a date-time and numeric field, such as CURRENCY, DATE, DATETIME, TIME, INTEGER, REAL, DOUBLE and NUMERIC fields when the field's value appears as a string. If Display Format is not assigned a string, the value is formatted according to the default DATE, TIME and CURRENCY settings of the database.
For complete details, examples and a PDF version of this document:
From The Edge: http://www.razzak.com/fte (R:BASE 7.0 for Windows)
Enjoy and make sure to have fun!
Very Best R:egards,
Razzak.
