text mask problem

[Keith G Hicks]

A2k.

I'm using the following to mask an unbound text box so that the user can
ONLY enter 50 characters:

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

I seem to recall this is a problem with access since this also means that
editing in that control means that typing in the middle of the string
overwrites characters regardless of the how the keyboard key "Insert" is set
(on or off).

I need to limit the # of charactes AS the user types. I do NOT want to Trim
the characters afterward, nor do I want to pop up some lame warning in the
BeforeUpdate event or in the ValidationRule property. That's dumb. How can I
limit the number of characters in an UNBOUND control AS the user types
without screwing up the insert behavior? There ought to be a "MaxChars"
property on text boxes.

So here's what I did and it seems to work peachy (and I removed the
"CCCCC..." mask):

Private Sub CertHolderName_KeyPress(KeyAscii As Integer)
If Len(Me.CertHolderName) > 50 Then
KeyAscii = 0#
End If
End Sub

Is that the best solution?

Thanks,

Keith.

 

[Keith G Hicks]

Well I spoke too soon. My solution is not working. How can this be handled?

Keith

 

[Keith G Hicks]

It would appear that in the code:

Private Sub CertHolderName_KeyPress(KeyAscii As Integer)
If Len(Me.CertHolderName) > 50 Then
KeyAscii = 0#
End If
End Sub

the expression

Len(Me.CertHolderName)

always returns 0 because Me.CertHolderName is always NULL. Why is that?
What's the solution?

Keith

 

[Keith G Hicks]

Never mind. I found this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/152050
What an inelegant way to have to handle this. A "MaxCharacters" property
sure would make sense.

Keith

 

[Pieter Wijnen]

And how do you think the code behind the property would differ from the Kb?
<g>
It basically expands on your attempt with the len function, only referring
to the text property instead the value property in your code, which is not
updated as you type

Pieter