How to format text entries?
Open text fields are convenient for capturing data that are not known in advance (e.g. a phone number, an institutional ID etc.). In order to avoid writing complex validation rules, a mask can be defined to format the data when they are entered.
Step 1 - Select Short Answer field
Select the Short answer field type: the Mask setting will match the format of the data to capture. The mask can also be combined with a validation rule (to verify that all characters have been entered for instance).
Note that it is not recommended to use this open text field with a mask to capture date or time values. Use the Date, Date and time or Time specific field types instead.
Step - 2 Set the Mask
A mask is made of tokens, designating what type of character is expected at each position. The possible mask tokens are:
Token |
Description |
---|---|
|
Numeric |
|
Letter, a to z, case insensitive |
|
Alphanumeric, case insensitive for letters |
|
Letter, transformed to uppercase |
|
Letter, transformed to lowercase |
|
Alphanumeric, transformed to uppercase for letters |
|
Alphanumeric, transformed to lowercase for letters |
Examples
The phone number (514) 286-0768
can be captured by the mask (###) ###-####
.
The institutional ID CA32 4455 6E5Z
can be captured by the mask AA## #### XXXX
.