Subject Re: insert dash after N characters in a strings From Heinz Kesting <Nobody@Nowhere.com> Date Mon, 25 May 2015 19:10:02 +0200 Newsgroups dbase.getting-started Hi Kent, > I have this project where i want put dashes in every characters; > I want that whenever i type on a certain entryfield the system will automatically put dashes in it. > like 999WYZ999 TO 999-XYZ-999-000 - also 3 zeros will be automatically added ... > or 999WWXX44E  = 9-99W-WXX-44E > I hope you can help me. As Ivar has already pointed out, a little more information about the validation for this string is needed, like: - how do you decide where to put the first dash in the example 999WWXX44E  = 9-99W-WXX-44E How do you determine that the result should be 9-99W-WXX-44E rather than 999-WWX-X44-E (followed by 2?? zeros) Are leading spaces allowed, or should they be stuffed with leading zeros? - does it always have to be 4 groups of 3 chars, how do you deal with shorter or longer strings? - what about upper/lower case? - any other chars that are nor allowed, not valid, special chars like   ? ! § % etc.? There maybe some further rules of that kind which were to be taken care of. However, you could start out by setting a simple picture property for the entryfield like picture = "NNN-NNN-NNN-NNN" and setting the max field length to 15 in case you have always 4 groups with 3 chars seperated by 3 dashes. maxLength = 15 This would give you the desired dashes automatically. Then, to refine it you could use key() and onKey() to deal with unwanted/invalid chars. Finally you could apply all kinds of fine-tuning when the user has left the entryfield by exploiting the entryfield's onLostFocus event. Here you can use functions and methods like substr(), at(), stuff() etc. to validate any part of the entryfield's value and "stuff" it the way you need to. This should give a start. Kind regards, Heinz