The edit control

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Overview of edit control
Create an "Edit" control
Main characteristics of edit control
Type of an edit control
Types and masks
Displaying an indication text in an edit control
Other important characteristics
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WINDEV Mobile

Others

See also

The edit control

Overview of edit control

The edit control allows the user to type information. The edit control can also be used to view information.

Versions 18 and later

Edit controls are now available for applications in Windows Store apps mode.

New in version 18

Edit controls are now available for applications in Windows Store apps mode.

Create an "Edit" control

To create an "Edit" control:

On the "Creation" pane, in the "Usual controls" group, click .
Click where the control will be created in the window or page. The control appears in the editor.

Remark: You also have the ability to create an edit control from a list of preset controls by expanding "Edit". The list of available controls is displayed with the project skin template. Simply click the requested control to create it in the editor.

To display the control characteristics, select "Description" in the control popup menu.

Report editor: You also have the ability to create an edit control in a report. See Input in the reports for more details.

Main characteristics of edit control

Type of an edit control

The format of an edit control depends on the type of information displayed or entered. The following types of edit controls can be created:

Text to display or enter a character string (name, address, etc.).
Multiline text to display or enter several lines separated by a "Carriage Return".
RTF text to enter and display information in RTF format.
HTML text to enter and format rich text.
Password: when typing information, all characters will be replaced by stars on the screen.
Numeric to display or enter a numeric value (weight, etc.). The "+++" characters are displayed if the control is not large enough to display the entire number.
Currency to display or enter monetary values.
Currency + Euro to manage prices for example
Date to display or enter dates.
Time to enter or display times.
Duration to enter or display durations.
Versions 24 and later
Text tokens to manage an input with tokens.
New in version 24
Text tokens to manage an input with tokens.
Text tokens to manage an input with tokens.

Types and masks

Input mask: Several input masks can be used for each type of edit control.

These input masks are multilingual: different input masks can be selected according to the runtime language of the project. See Multilingual feature in the controls for more details.

These input masks can be modified by programming with ..InputMask.

Versions 17 and later

Display mask: You can also define display masks for some types of controls (Currency, Currency + Euro, Date, Time and Duration). These display masks are used to define the characteristics of the control when it is not in edit.

For example, a Date control can have:

the input mask: "MM/DD/YYYY".
the display mask: "DDDD DD MMMM YYYY" (corresponding to the spelled out date).

The display masks can be multilingual and they can be modified by programming with ..DisplayMask.

New in version 17

For example, a Date control can have:

the input mask: "MM/DD/YYYY".
the display mask: "DDDD DD MMMM YYYY" (corresponding to the spelled out date).

The display masks can be multilingual and they can be modified by programming with ..DisplayMask.

For example, a Date control can have:

the input mask: "MM/DD/YYYY".
the display mask: "DDDD DD MMMM YYYY" (corresponding to the spelled out date).

The display masks can be multilingual and they can be modified by programming with ..DisplayMask.

Displaying an indication text in an edit control

The hint text is used to display a help text in the empty edit control. This help text is automatically erased as soon as the user types the first character in the control.

This indication text is available for:

the text edit controls.
the Numeric, Currency and Currency + Euro edit controls.
In order for the indication text to be displayed in the Numeric, Currency or Currency + Euro edit controls, the option "Reset if zero" must be checked ("Details" tab of control description).
You can also display the lower bound and the upper bound of the numeric edit control:
- in the indication text ("Display the bounds in the indication text" in the "Details" tab of control description).
- in the control tooltip ("Display the bounds in the tooltip" option in the "Details" tab of control description).

The help text can be typed:

in the description window of the edit control ("Help" tab in WINDEV/WINDEV Mobile and "Content" tab in WEBDEV).
by programming with ..Hint.

The style of the indication text displayed in the control can be configured in the "Style" tab. By default, it corresponds to the style of the input area, in gray and italic. To modify it, all you have to do is select the "Indication text" element and check "Customize the style of the indication text".

Versions 22 and later
..HintTextColor is used to find out and modify the color of information text by programming.

New in version 22
..HintTextColor is used to find out and modify the color of information text by programming.

..HintTextColor is used to find out and modify the color of information text by programming.

Other important characteristics

An edit control can be:

used to perform a "Drag and Drop". See Managing Drag and Drop for more details.
in assisted input: When the input is performed in the control, the application automatically proposes the corresponding value found in the HFSQL key item linked to the control.
For example, in the "City" control, "London" is automatically proposed once "Lo" was typed.
The assisted input operates on the key items and on the Text items only.
The assisted input does not operate on the non-key items, on the numeric items, and if an input mask is used for the dates. See Assisted input in an edit control for more details

An edit control can also propose:

a spelling checker that uses:
- the OpenOffice dictionary installed on the computer, or a spelling and grammar checker that uses the Word dictionary.
- Versions 24 and later
  either an integrated automatic correction (based on Hunspell dictionaries.
  New in version 24
  either an integrated automatic correction (based on Hunspell dictionaries.
  either an integrated automatic correction (based on Hunspell dictionaries.
- The type of spelling correction is selected in the project description window ("Options" tab).

an input history: When the input is performed in the control, the list of values previously entered in the control will be automatically proposed. This input history is not proposed for the multiline controls. See Storing the input performed (AAF) for more details.
Versions 15 and later
help during the input of file path. This option is used to propose the different directories and files accessible when typing a file name with its path. This option is not available if the assisted input is proposed for the control.
New in version 15
help during the input of file path. This option is used to propose the different directories and files accessible when typing a file name with its path. This option is not available if the assisted input is proposed for the control.
help during the input of file path. This option is used to propose the different directories and files accessible when typing a file name with its path. This option is not available if the assisted input is proposed for the control.

To display the control characteristics, select "Description" in the control popup menu.

Swap

Versions 20 and later

WINDEV and WINDEV Mobile allow you to automatically transform an edit control into several static controls:

Select the edit control to transform.
On the "Modification" pane, in the "Transformations" group, expand "Refactoring and swapping" and select "Edit control to Statics".

A static control is automatically created for the caption of the edit control and also for the input area.

New in version 20

WINDEV and WINDEV Mobile allow you to automatically transform an edit control into several static controls:

Select the edit control to transform.
On the "Modification" pane, in the "Transformations" group, expand "Refactoring and swapping" and select "Edit control to Statics".

A static control is automatically created for the caption of the edit control and also for the input area.

WINDEV and WINDEV Mobile allow you to automatically transform an edit control into several static controls:

Select the edit control to transform.
On the "Modification" pane, in the "Transformations" group, expand "Refactoring and swapping" and select "Edit control to Statics".

A static control is automatically created for the caption of the edit control and also for the input area.

Related Examples:

Unit examples (WINDEV): The edit control

[ + ] Using an edit control.

Unit examples (WINDEV Mobile): The RTF edit control

[ + ] Using text in RTF format in the edit controls.
This format is very useful to format and view data.

Unit examples (WINDEV): The special characters

[ + ] Handling special characters in an RTF control and viewing the ASCII and ANSI codes.

Unit examples (WINDEV): The voice recognition functions

[ + ] Using the voice recognition functions.
The voice commands of Windows Vista (or Windows XP, with a specific software) are used to control WINDEV applications with the voice.
A WINDEV application already responds to the voice when the user dictates in an edit control or spells out the caption of a button.
You also have the ability to program a specific voice command to perform a specific action.

Unit examples (WINDEV): Advanced input mask

[ + ] Handling the input masks in WINDEV:
- Defining the format of positive/negative number in a numeric edit control
- Defining how negative numbers will be displayed in a numeric edit control
- Defining how the value 0 will be displayed in a numeric edit control
- Using a regular expression to prevent from typing characters other than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
- Using a regular expression to "regulate" the input of a French registration number

Training (WINDEV): WD Search Control

[ + ] This example explains how to manage an edit control used to perform FullText searches of "google" type in your database.

Complete examples (WEBDEV): WW_Rewali

[ + ] This example is a site for travel booking.

It proposes travels at very attractive prices.
You have the ability to choose the travel duration, the start dates, then validate the purchase until the payment via Paypal.

It is using the "scrolling banner" control and the planes.