Help needed with Conditional Mask

[Geoffrey Hollander]

I have a small table that has a phone field (H_PHONE) of 14 characters. Phones with area codes are to be formatted as: (123) 456-7890, while those that don�t have one are to look like this: 456-7890.

I set the Field Rules up for a conditional mask. The first condition is that the mask look like this: 000-0000 if the following is true: LEN(ALLTRIM(H_PHONE)) = 7. The second condition is that the mask is to look like this: (000) 000-000 if the following is true: LEN(ALLTRIM(H_PHONE)) = 10.

Once the string of numbers is entered into the field and I hit Enter or Tab, moving the cursor to the next field, the phone field simply remains as a string of numbers; that is to say no mask, no format. If I give focus back to the field and then move on, it will then display itself with the appropriate mask in place.

I think that I�m missing something here. If you set a conditional mask, won�t it be based on that same field�s content/criteria a good part of the time? Can this be accomplished through Field Rules, without using XBasic or a custom form?

Help � nay, insight! � would be welcome here. Thanks.

Regards,

Geoff Hollander

[Finian Lennon]

RE: Help needed with Conditional Mask

Geoff:

I haven't done a conditional mask so this is just guesswork ... looking at your expression

LEN(ALLTRIM(H_PHONE)) = 7

I wonder if you are storing the literal - in the field? If so, then the expression might need
LEN(ALLTRIM(REMSPECIAL(H_PHONE))) = 7

Finian

[Mick Magnuson]

RE: Help needed with Conditional Mask

I get that once in awhile as well, for the ONDEPART action for the field in question put a "parentform.resynch()"

Should fix itself with that.

Mick

[CALocklin]

RE: Help needed with Conditional Mask

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't see how you can base a conditional mask on the field that is being entered. I just tried it on a 16 character field and defined one mask for len(trim(fieldname))"10 and another for >=10. The mask for "10 only contained 9 mask characters. When entering a new record, the result is always

[csda1]

RE: Help needed with Conditional Mask

Wouldn't it be great if the world would come up with 1 consistent phone numbering system or postal code system?

And while we're at it, have one Television standard (well we are at least moving towards that one in the digital age!) and DVD's with out Region Codes....

--Ira

[Geoffrey Hollander]

RE: Help needed with Conditional Mask

Thanks everyone.

I tried the first two solutions and no go. Cal, I think that you're right, the field rule can't anticipate the data that needs to be used in its own conditional statements.

I thought that maybe there would be some kind of automatic resynch sort of thing that would take place upon leaving that field for the next one; and thereby, SHAZAMMM the conditional parameters would kick in.

Best Regards,

Geoff Hollander

[JohnZaleski]

RE: Help needed with Conditional Mask

Geoff,
This is probably more work for the user than desired, but you could have a field (AREACODEYN) 1 byte, checkbox entry defaulting to "Y". That field could be the condition that you test on when entering the phone. When user has no area code, checks the "N".

[whanigsberg]

RE: Help needed with Conditional Mask

Could we not test the field's contents on the way out using the can_depart event?

remspecial(alltrim(a_field_value)

would (most of the time unless a user had typed something peculiar) yield either

1234567, or
1234567890

which you could then format (conditionally according to length) with ( ) or - or spaces or whatever.

Haven't tried it, though.

Bill

[whanigsberg]

RE: Help needed with Conditional Mask

Hi everyone,

This works.

Define the following global function:

=============================================
function format_phone as C(input_string as C)

tmpstr = alltrim(remspecial(input_string))

select
case len(tmpstr) = 7
tmpstr = left(tmpstr,3)+"-"+right(tmpstr,4)
case len(tmpstr) = 10
tmpstr = "("+substr(tmpstr,1,3)+") "+substr(tmpstr,4,3)+"-"+right(tmpstr,4)
case else
tmpstr = input_string
end select

format_phone = tmpstr

end function

===========================================
From the interactive window:

output = format_phone ("514 123-4567")
?output
= "(514) 123-4567"

output = format_phone ("1234567")
?output
= "123-4567"

output = format_phone ("5141234567")

?output
= "(514) 123-4567"

============================================
Define this field rule for the can_write_field event of the phone field:

a_field_value = format_phone (a_field_value)

Obviously you could further elaborate the function as necessary.

Bill

[csda1]

RE: Help needed with Conditional Mask

Hi Bill,

Just because I like to bust your chops, here is a better function! :?)

function format_phone as C(input_string as C)

tmpstr = alltrim(remspecial(input_string))
lentmp=len(tmpstr)

if lentmp=10
tmpstr=mask(tmpstrg,"(...)|...-....")
else if lentmp=7
tmpstr=mask(tmpstrg,"...-....")
else
tmpstr=input_string
end if

format_phone=tmpstr

end function

Spaces are to be placed where "." appears above.

This variation shows 3 (maybe 4) important differences in XBasic methods for speed.

1. Never cover the same ground twice -len(tmpstg)is calculated only once
2. Always put the most probable outcome 1st (except for possibly default cases), in this case I'll assume it is 10 digit phone numbers.
3. Use the simplest built-in functions and use them the minimum amount that accomplishes the job. In this case it's the MASK() function

and finally,

4. Ask Ira what a better way to do it is! (OK this is not really an XBasic method)

Regards,

Ira J. Perlow
Computer Systems Design & Associates
[email protected]

[csda1]

RE: Help needed with Conditional Mask

Hi Bill,

Oh, and I just noticed that the ALLTRIM is redundant with the REMSPECIAL, so it becomes;

function format_phone as C(input_string as C)

tmpstr=remspecial(input_string)
lentmp=len(tmpstr)

if lentmp=10
tmpstr=mask(tmpstrg,"(...)|...-....")
else if lentmp=7
tmpstr=mask(tmpstrg,"...-....")
else
tmpstr=input_string
end if

format_phone=tmpstr

end function

Spaces are to be placed where "." appears above.

Regards,

Ira J. Perlow
Computer Systems Design & Associates
[email protected]

[whanigsberg]

RE: Help needed with Conditional Mask

Hello Ira,

I kwew you would have something to add. In fact, I had planned to include in my little contribution the sentence,
"I hope Ira will be proud of me for doing this with a function."

But I forgot.

I completely forgot about the mask function. Of course, our little issue here is just what it's for.

As for busting my chops, you are welcome to do it. This board has such wonderful colleagueship and cooperation that we (at least I) are miles ahead for it.

Thanks for the improvement and-especially-the statement of principles.

Bill

[Jay Talbott]

RE: Help needed with Conditional Mask

For what it's worth:

We in the Philadelphia area now have to dial all ten digits of a phone number, even if it is in our own area code. This is because we now have overlay area codes which means that there can be two (or possibly) more area codes for one region. This is because of the explosion of new telephone numbers. We already suffered through a split of area codes 5 or 6 year ago.

The reason that I am writing this is because I think it would be a good idea to put in area codes right from the start, regardless of whether or not you need them now, as you may face the same problem we have. You could always have the for display them without the area code if it is a local number, but you may find yourself needing to put them back in later if you do not do it now.

Jay Talbott

[whanigsberg]

RE: Help needed with Conditional Mask

Jay,

You give wise advice. My wife is in the phone business and what is today true for Philadelphia will soon be the case everywhere, at least everywhere in North America.

The term "area code" is now a misnomer, given that your next-door neighbor can have a different 3-digit prefix. The only advantage is that we are told that we will be able to keep the same phone number when we move. So you could come up here to Montr�al and keep your old number. At least that is how it is supposed to work.

But by then Bill Gates will probably have purchased the phone companies, phone numbers will be a part of windows and Linux users will have to purchase pigeons.

Bill

[CALocklin]

RE: Help needed with Conditional Mask

I agree with you, Jay. Southeast Michigan (Detroit) used to be the 313 area code (I think - it's been a long time since it was only one). Now it's the 313, 810, 248, and 734 area codes with another split coming soon.

Between home, office, and cell phones, I personally have phone numbers in 3 area codes as do many people that I call on at DaimlerChrysler. (You would think that a company the size of DCX could get their pagers in the same area code as the company's office!)

Cal