Allow Letter Entry A-Z Only 2

[phbarbara]

I need to limit the entry of characters in the LName and FName fields of a database table. I would like the only allowable entries to be a-z, -, to allow hyphenated last names, and a space for names like St Mary. The field needs to be upper or lowercase and limited in length only by the field size. How do I format this? There is a staff member that continues to add their own embellishments to names making it difficult to sort and query! I'm not a programmer but can cut and paste code and change field names and object names to meet my needs. Thanks.

 

[ZmrAbdulla]

Hi,
Search for the topics below in your Access help file

"About creating input masks to control how data is entered in a field or control"
"Input mask syntax and examples"
"InputMask Property"

regards

Zameer Abdulla

http://www.geocities.com/zameerabd/

 

[willir]

GOF52

This is a little tricky.

Try using the OnKeyPress event procedure.

When a key is typed, you can evaluate it...
- Check to make sure it is alphabetic, or accepted special character.
- Count characters
- Even use formal text (upper case first letter, small case for the rest)

It takes a bit of work, but is do-able.

Richard

 

[LittleSmudge]

Another approach to consider is to put some code in the Before_Update event of the control

You can then add all sorts of checking and if a check fails you can add msgbox comments to tell the user the exact problem.

Something like

Dim intC as Integer
Dim ascChar as Integer

For intC = 1 To Len(txtBoxName)
ascChar = Asc(Mid(txtBoxName,intC,1))

If ascChar = 32 Then ' Its a space Char
    ' Char is acceptable
ElseIf ascChar = xx ' Whats the Ascii for "-"
    ' Char is acceptable
ElseIf (ascChar > 64 And ascChar < 91) _
    ' Char is acceptable
ElseIf (ascChar > 96 And ascChar < 123) Then
    ' Char is acceptable
Else
    MsgBox "Inappropriate character in position " & intC & vblf _
         & "Your entry has not been accepted.", ,"Please concentrate"
    Cancel = True
End If

' add other checks here if you want to.

Next

'ope-that-'elps.



G LS
spsinkNOJUNK@yahoo.co.uk
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[willir]

Great post Graham!

 

[phbarbara]

Thank you for your replies. The request was beyond the scope of an input mask but thanks for the thought. The OnKeyPress event sounds quite reasonable but I don't know if I could figure that one out! The code I can use, thank you Little/Smudge.

 

[LittleSmudge]

Thanks for the feedback GOF52 - thats a good roundup of the various ideas and how applicable they were to your needs. It provides feedback on how useful you found the ideas.

That way we all learn.






G LS
spsinkNOJUNK@yahoo.co.uk
Remove the NOJUNK to use.