Input mask syntax

[mikebinsd]

I apologize if I'm a village idiot, but I thought I saw a input mask column, but now i can't find it, except for the tutorial.. but anyway

I understand all the wildcards and / means the next character is literal, but nowhere do i find the what the symbols ; and @ are used for.. Why are these not included in the simple tutorial.. Example, when using the , say, format defaults for a phone number !(999") "000-0000;;_

what do the ;; mean? and once I entered this in the field property, it doubled by itself ;;;;

Thanks all and thanks for access :{D

[missinglinq]

In Access, fire up Help and enter Input Mask. Then click on Examples of Input Masks, and you'll see a comprehensive list of the various characters and what they mean!

Good Luck!

Linq

[mikebinsd]

In Access, fire up Help and enter Input Mask. Then click on Examples of Input Masks, and you'll see a comprehensive list of

Oh, I spent a good several hours yeaterday googling several different strings of
input mask syntax..

None of then talk about @ or ;;

That's why I'm here!!!

[MMcCarthy]

Oh, I spent a good several hours yeaterday googling several different strings of
input mask syntax..

None of then talk about @ or ;;

That's why I'm here!!!

The ;; is just what access puts after an input mask to indicate it is an input mask. It has some meaning to the jet engine but I wouldn't worry about what that is.

The @ sign can be used as a placeholder

@@@-@@@-@@@

Could appear in a textbox with an input mask for a phone number. The @ sign is only there to prompt the user to replace it with a number.

[mikebinsd]

OK, fine, I still wanna know why is this info not posted or added to the ACCESS help files. Thta's what I mean about "inside baseball" when I first logged in and posted in the noob forum..

i.e.

Here is Microsofts own website about input mask syntax and please show me where @ is part of the club.. It ain't..!! There is some "inside baseball" going around here that isn't being shared with the noob clowns and I THINK THAT STINKS. If ; separates specific areas, why does the input mask wizard put 2 ; ; on the end of the string when creating a string for , say, the phone? Once again, nobody can answer the question.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/HP051875501033.aspx

I've looked and I even got out a magnifying glass, and I can't find the character
@ when using it as a format. i.e. (@@@) @@@-@@@@ in the phone property field

Somebody out there knows about this "inside baseball" I type about.. All I get is a bunch of people telling me to check the help files in ACCESS.

Are you all saying that any charcter can be used? How about ½ or ¼ or â? Can I use these characters as wildcards?

Thanks, and I understand I need to go elsewhere to find the answer to my simple question

[MMcCarthy]

If you check my previous post I have answered both questions. The double ;; is an indicator to the compiler and the @ is not a wildcard character it is a placeholder.

[JConsulting]

OK, fine, I still wanna know why is this info not posted or added to the ACCESS help files. Thta's what I mean about "inside baseball" when I first logged in and posted in the noob forum..

i.e.

Here is Microsofts own website about input mask syntax and please show me where @ is part of the club.. It ain't..!! There is some "inside baseball" going around here that isn't being shared with the noob clowns and I THINK THAT STINKS. If ; separates specific areas, why does the input mask wizard put 2 ; ; on the end of the string when creating a string for , say, the phone? Once again, nobody can answer the question.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/HP051875501033.aspx

I've looked and I even got out a magnifying glass, and I can't find the character
@ when using it as a format. i.e. (@@@) @@@-@@@@ in the phone property field

Somebody out there knows about this "inside baseball" I type about.. All I get is a bunch of people telling me to check the help files in ACCESS.

Are you all saying that any charcter can be used? How about ½ or ¼ or â? Can I use these characters as wildcards?

Thanks, and I understand I need to go elsewhere to find the answer to my simple question

As we experts are here to help....sometim es we have to exude massive amounts of patience in order to get past what seems to be a quite emotional..almo st angry person asking a question. We volunteer here...and we help when we can. I don't see the need to be insulting. Rephrasing a question vs saying that "no one here can help" isn't very useful in obtaining your answer. But for the sake of edification....


Input masks contain three sections, all separated by semicolons. The first section is mandatory, and the rest are optional. The first section defines the mask string and consists of placeholder and literal characters. The second section defines whether you want to store the mask characters plus the data in the field. Enter 0 if you want to store the mask and your data; enter 1 if you only want to store the data. The third section defines the placeholder used to indicate a position for data. By default, Access uses the underscore (_). If you want to use another character, you can enter it in the desired position in the mask string, or you can enter it in the third section of your mask. Also, by default, a position in an input mask accepts only one character or space.

For example, this input mask forces users to enter dates in a format used in many parts of the world.

00 LLL 0000;0;_

The first section defines the mask. In this case, the zero acts as a placeholder for digits, and L acts as a placeholder for letters. The mask requires a pair of numbers for the day of the month (the first two zeroes) and all four digits of the year (the last four zeroes). The three instances of L require a three-letter abbreviation for the month.

The second section forces Access to store the mask characters along with the data. The third section specifies the underscore as the placeholder character. If you want, you can also add a date separator to the mask string, like so: 00/LLL/0000;0;_.

so when you ask what the ;; is for...it simply means you haven't supplied, or Access doesn't supply the last two parameters for your specific format selection.

Access help does define what each character is for, and what it does. And no, it can't be 1/2 or 1/3 or any arbitrary value you want. Although those values CAN be used as defaults in certain conditional formats.

If you have a SPECIFIC format that you're attempting to use that you're having trouble making work...then please let us know that it is...and we CAN help.

Thanks for playing!@;;
J

[Charles Taylor]

Very clear and detailed post. Thank you. Given all you have written I suspect that the reason for my particular problem is that I have linked a date field in an adp application to a 2008 SQL database. I would still like my date input field to be displayed in the access form/table in the format dd/mm/yyyy. Is this possible?