Input masks (for GUI dynamic input validation)

[GreenCan]

NEW VERSION: 17 Jun 2013

Ever wondered how to avoid input being so painful?

You can type a lot of errors in a GUICtrlCreateInput, for example alphanumeric where you want only numbers and decimals, typing 10 characters where you only want 9, etc.

Input masks can make your life easier and Validation can be as simple as this:

GuiCtrlCreateLabel("Input Decimal(8,2)", 10, 110, 200, 15)
$MyInput = GUICtrlCreateInput("",210,110,110,20)
_Inputmask_add($MyInput, $iIM_INTEGER, 0, "", 8, 2)

It requires only one additional line per input

The UDFexample script demonstrates 13 dynamic input validations.  A lot more validations can be made. Up to you to be inventive.

_inputmask 1.0.0.5.zip

Enhanced:

Better input control

- The previous versions worked well with blank fields but editing non-blank inputs was really a pain.

Now the cursor remains where the edit is occurring.  Once the max width is reached, no additional characters can be added.

- Added beep on invalid entry.  In fact I use soundplay instead of beep because beep gives a cracking sound result on my laptop.  You can set beep off (put Global $bBeep = False anywhere in your script)

If you prefer a true beep, you can beep it on in line 150.

Minor issue:

- decimal Numbers after the '.' scroll away when inserting until it bumps to the max allowed decimals. I didn't fix that yet, I don't know how to solve this ...

Edit: Version 1.0.0.3 (Total downloads previous versions: 38)

UDF and examples: _inputmask.zip

Added:  6 Presets for the Input masks:
  $iIM_INTEGER Input mask for INTEGERS only (..., -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ...)
  $iIM_POSITIVE_INTEGER Input mask for positive INTEGERS only (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ...)
  $iIM_REAL Input mask for REAL numbers (..., -123.456, 0, 123.456, ...)
  $iIM_POSITIVE_REAL Input mask for positive REAL numbers only (0, 23.562389, 123.456, ...)
  $iIM_ALPHANUMERIC Input mask for Alphanumeric characters only (A-Za-z0-9)
  $iIM_ALPHA Input mask for Alphabetic characters only (A-Za-z)

Small corrections, additional mask examples

Examples:

Example 1 _inputmask - example.au3 (see zip file)

Example 2: _Inputmask combining two WM_COMMAND handlers (see zip file)

Thanks to Melba23 for his explanation how to combine GUIRegisterMsg WM_COMMAND handlers)

If you create your own input mask that could be useful for the AutoIt community, please let me know, I will be glad to add it to the above example.

GreenCan

Edited June 18, 2013 by GreenCan

[water]

GreenCan,

very nice idea! Makes validation a lot easier!

[GreenCan]

Thank you water.

New version uploaded. I removed some unnecessary overhead in the code. I was too fast yesterday...

[guinness]

Thanks for this. You might want to add a note that if someone wishes to integrate into their script and they're using GUIRegisterMsg with the WM_COMMAND, then they will need to re-tweak your UDF or their function.

You could also think about adding a function which can create a custom regular expression for those who don't know SRE e.g.

; $iFlags = 1 - Numbers only.
; $iFlags = 2 - Alphanumeric only.
; etc...
Func _InputMask_Params($iLength, $iFlags, $fCaseSensitive = False)
    
EndFunc

Edited June 1, 2013 by guinness

[debugcs]

非常实用和简单，感谢分享

Simple and very practical, thanks for sharing

[GreenCan]

Thanks for this. You might want to add a note that if someone wishes to integrate into their script and they're using GUIRegisterMsg with the WM_COMMAND, then they will need to re-tweak your UDF or their function.

Correct, I'll do this ASAP.

You could also think about adding a function which can create a custom regular expression for those who don't know SRE e.g.

; $iFlags = 1 - Numbers only.
; $iFlags = 2 - Alphanumeric only.
; etc...
Func _InputMask_Params($iLength, $iFlags, $fCaseSensitive = False)
    
EndFunc

Yes, SRE give headaches...

Maybe, as a compromise, I could make a combination of standard mask sets (as per your flags) and SRE for the advanced masks

非常实用和简单，感谢分享

Simple and very practical, thanks for sharing

谢谢

[guinness]

Yes, SRE give headaches...

Maybe, as a compromise, I could make a combination of standard mask sets (as per your flags) and SRE for the advanced masks

Yeh good idea. Also you know ^d is D?

[water]

Hi GreenCan,

didn't know you speak Chinese

[GreenCan]

Yeh good idea. Also you know ^d is D?

Yes, in fact

    _Inputmask_add($Input_2, "[D]|([{0-9,1}^A-])", 0, "", 6)

works equally well as

    _Inputmask_add($Input_2, "[^d]|([{0-9,1}^A-])[^d.]", 0, "", 6) ==> not sure if [^d.] at the end is really required

but I couldn't find out how to add the minus and dot

My headache is increasing again...

My search for perfection stops when I see that things work. Bad attitude? Probably

[Melba23]

GreenCan,

I had this in my Snippets folder:

#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include <WindowsConstants.au3>
#include <EditConstants.au3>

$iMaxDecimalCount = 2

$hGui = GUICreate('?????? ?????', 220, 180)
$iInput = GUICtrlCreateInput('', 10, 10, 200, 20);, -1, $WS_EX_STATICEDGE)
GUISetState()
GUIRegisterMsg($WM_COMMAND, 'WM_COMMAND')

While 1
    Switch GUIGetMsg()
        Case $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
            Exit
    EndSwitch
WEnd

Func WM_COMMAND($hWnd, $imsg, $iwParam, $ilParam)
    If $ilParam <> GUICtrlGetHandle($iInput) Then Return $GUI_RUNDEFMSG
    Local $nNotifyCode, $nID, $sText
    $nNotifyCode = BitShift($iwParam, 16)
    Static $spText = ''

    Switch $nNotifyCode
        Case $EN_CHANGE
            $sText = GUICtrlRead($iInput)
            If Not StringRegExp($sText, '^(-)?(\d*\.\d{0,' & $iMaxDecimalCount & '}|(\d{1,3}|^)(?:,\d{0,3})+(?:(?<=\d{3})\.\d{0,' & $iMaxDecimalCount & '})?|\d*)$') Then
                GUICtrlSetData($iInput, $spText)
            Else
                $spText = $sText
            EndIf
    EndSwitch

    Return $GUI_RUNDEFMSG
EndFunc   ;==>WM_COMMAND

It seems to cope with minus signs and decimals - I hope it might be of use.

M23

[Zedna]

@GreenCan

Nice idea to make it as UDF!

Just one hint for speed optimize:

In Func _InputMask($hWnd, $iMsg, $wParam, $lParam)
 

instead of:

For $i = 0 To UBound($aInputMask, 1) - 1
        If $iIDFrom = $aInputMask[$i][0] Then
            If $iCode = $EN_CHANGE Then

do it like this:

If $iCode = $EN_CHANGE Then
      For $i = 0 To UBound($aInputMask, 1) - 1
        If $iIDFrom = $aInputMask[$i][0] Then

For more masked labels it can improve unnecessary looping when WM_COMMAND send other message than EN_CHANGE from any other control.

Edited June 1, 2013 by Zedna

[GreenCan]

It seems to cope with minus signs and decimals - I hope it might be of use.

Thank you Melba23, I will have a look at it.

instead of:

For $i = 0 To UBound($aInputMask, 1) - 1
        If $iIDFrom = $aInputMask[$i][0] Then
            If $iCode = $EN_CHANGE Then

do it like this:

If $iCode = $EN_CHANGE Then
      For $i = 0 To UBound($aInputMask, 1) - 1
        If $iIDFrom = $aInputMask[$i][0] Then

For more masked labels it can improve unnecessary looping when WM_COMMAND send other message than EN_CHANGE from any other control.

 

The speed is in the details.

Perfect comment! Adopted.

Thanks Zedna

[Zedna]

One more idea/question:

As you use GUIRegisterMsg($WM_COMMAND,"_InputMask") in your UDF

I'm not sure how it will be working when I already use GUIRegisterMsg($WM_COMMAND,"My_WM_COMMAND") and I add your UDF into my script.

Will be some conflict there or will be invoked both registered functions (my and from yourUDF)?

Maybe just add some comment about this, what must be done to avoid this type of conflict.

Edited June 1, 2013 by Zedna

[GreenCan]

One more idea/question:

As you use GUIRegisterMsg($WM_COMMAND,"_InputMask") in your UDF

I'm not sure how it will be working when I already use GUIRegisterMsg($WM_COMMAND,"My_WM_COMMAND") and I add your UDF into my script.

Will be some conflict there or will be invoked both registered functions (my and from yourUDF)?

Maybe just add some comment about this, what must be done to avoid this type of conflict.

Yes, correct. This is the same question as guinness in post 4.

I will put a comment in the header info of next version.

I did not test how to resolve the conflict.  Probably, if someone already uses GUIRegisterMsg($WM_COMMAND,..), then the whole must be merged and that means serious recoding (read fun)...

[Melba23]

GreenCan,

Look at my UDFs to see how I get round this - GUILListViewEx is a good example. Please contact me if you have any questions once you have seen the code.

M23

[GreenCan]

GreenCan,

I had this in my Snippets folder:

#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include <WindowsConstants.au3>
#include <EditConstants.au3>

$iMaxDecimalCount = 2

$hGui = GUICreate('?????? ?????', 220, 180)
$iInput = GUICtrlCreateInput('', 10, 10, 200, 20);, -1, $WS_EX_STATICEDGE)
GUISetState()
GUIRegisterMsg($WM_COMMAND, 'WM_COMMAND')

While 1
    Switch GUIGetMsg()
        Case $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
            Exit
    EndSwitch
WEnd

Func WM_COMMAND($hWnd, $imsg, $iwParam, $ilParam)
    If $ilParam <> GUICtrlGetHandle($iInput) Then Return $GUI_RUNDEFMSG
    Local $nNotifyCode, $nID, $sText
    $nNotifyCode = BitShift($iwParam, 16)
    Static $spText = ''

    Switch $nNotifyCode
        Case $EN_CHANGE
            $sText = GUICtrlRead($iInput)
            If Not StringRegExp($sText, '^(-)?(\d*\.\d{0,' & $iMaxDecimalCount & '}|(\d{1,3}|^)(?:,\d{0,3})+(?:(?<=\d{3})\.\d{0,' & $iMaxDecimalCount & '})?|\d*)$') Then
                GUICtrlSetData($iInput, $spText)
            Else
                $spText = $sText
            EndIf
    EndSwitch

    Return $GUI_RUNDEFMSG
EndFunc   ;==>WM_COMMAND

It seems to cope with minus signs and decimals - I hope it might be of use.

M23

M23,

I like it but I based my code on another of your snippets here and it does what it needs to do with a few lines more, so I'll stick with it.

Revising the logic would require more work than I like.

Thanks

GreenCan

[GreenCan]

New version uploaded (see post 1)

• Added 6 preset (standard) input masks in the UDF (suggestion guinness)
• On request of guinness and Zedna, I added an example of how to combine two WM_COMMAND handlers
• split up examples from UDF

Thanks to Zedna for giving me hope for the future.... I can get better still... 

GreenCan

[GreenCan]

Hi GreenCan,

didn't know you speak Chinese

 

You don't? 失败是成功之母

Edited June 2, 2013 by GreenCan

[water]

I do. Because my godson lives in Shanghai.

[Zedna]

@GreenCan

Good work!

Just make one ZIP file (attachment) containing UDF+exxamples.for simple download.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Zedna