How to work on the textbox of inputbox using C#?

Question

I am trying to make a form where I can get a specific value from the user and save it in a table. This table is visible to the user at the same time. The form I made shows the table using a datagridview. The value I need to enter is being taken by the inputbox. (I referred this site).

The problem is that, the value being taken by the inputbox follows a certain syntax, and I need to inform this to the user, I have thought of showing the syntax in the textbox, and when the user selects the textbox to enter this value the preloaded text is removed.

The term you're looking for is 'placeholder', see [Adding placeholder text to textbox](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11873378/adding-placeholder-text-to-textbox). — CodeCaster, Apr 25 '13 at 18:38
@CodeCaster: Alternatively, some people refer to it as a 'watermark', see http://stackoverflow.com/a/2487119/347172. — myermian, Apr 25 '13 at 18:49

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 25 '13 at 18:34

1

You can use the MaskedTextbox instead of the classic TextBox:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/system.windows.forms.maskedtextbox.mask(v=vs.110).aspx

answered Apr 25 '13 at 18:34

Kai

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 25 '13 at 18:39

To add to what Kai said, you can also use the ErrorProvider class to provide notifications to the user if the input provided does not validate.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.errorprovider.aspx http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/898/How-To-Use-The-ErrorProvider-Object-To-Indicate-In

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 25 '13 at 18:49

1

You should consider using a MaskedTextBox.

A simple implementation would look like this:

MaskedTextBox mskTxtBox = new MaskedTextBox();
mskTxtBox.Mask = /* format your Mask here */;

A further - and more specific example - would be:

mskTxtBox.Mask = "(123)456-7890"; //For a phone number.

Or:

mskTxtBox.Mask = "00/00/0000"; //For a date.

answered Apr 25 '13 at 18:49

Brian

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You are welcome. If one of the answers works for you, don't forget to _accept_ it. – Brian Apr 26 '13 at 15:18

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 25 '13 at 18:36

This is not standard .Net, it's more Vb.Net stuff as this class is part of Microsoft.VisualBasic assembly. I recommend you to switch to MaskedTextBox instead, in the standard System.Windows.Forms namespace.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.maskedtextbox.aspx

How to work on the textbox of inputbox using C#?

4 Answers4