InputMask functionality for string controls

[PhillipBrooks]

The ability to define a mask for a string control to simplify data entry. Useful for any type of data including zip codes, phone numbers, IP and MAC addresses, formatted serial numbers etc...

Similar to Microsoft InputMask property in Access (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb215691.aspx)

[TCPlomp]

And here is some code to get NI started.

Ton

[Chris_in_Colorado]

nicel. i've written one too.

[Mads]

I was just about to post a duplicate (almost) of this idea as I did not think of the phrase mask, but rather thought of it as "input format specifiers" (vs display format specifiers).  

The inputmask/format specifier idea could potentially be expanded to also cover other data types - like array controls. You could for example make an array of fixed size by specifying an input format for a numeric control that included multiple entries - or generate a cluster by specifying variable data types in the format specification..The string case could almost achieve the same things though, just not with in-built data type magic.

Anyway - I think this might be an alternative too: If we do not get inputmasks, we could at least achieve this nicely if we had the ability to intercept incorrect input prior to display.