Version

Validating Character Entries

Background

The WinGrid’s™ KeyPress event provides you with total control over key-by-key user input and the ability to translate or validate these key strokes.

Questions

  • How do I treat the period (".") key like a slash ("/") key in a date field?

Solution

In the KeyPress Event, use the Key property of the ActiveCell’s Column object (ActiveCell.Column.Key) to tell which column received the key stroke, set the Handled property of the e object to True to cancel any additional operations on this characters, and invoke the SendKeys.Send("/") method to send a slash instead.

Sample Project

This sample project translates the period (".") character to a slash ("/") character during user input into the OrderDate column.

Before you start writing any code, you should place using/imports directives in your code-behind so you don’t need to always type out a member’s fully qualified name.

In Visual Basic:

Imports Infragistics.Win.UltraWinGrid

In C#:

using Infragistics.Win.UltraWinGrid;

The UltraGrid Events region contains the following event handlers:

  • UltraGrid1.InitializeLayout - The code in the InitializeLayout event turns off the drop-down calendar of the OrderDate column:

In Visual Basic:

Private Sub UltraGrid1_InitializeLayout(ByVal sender As Object, _
  ByVal e As Infragistics.Win.UltraWinGrid.InitializeLayoutEventArgs) _
  Handles UltraGrid1.InitializeLayout
	' Turn off drop-down calendar
	e.Layout.Bands(0).Columns("OrderDate").Style = _
	  Infragistics.Win.UltraWinGrid.ColumnStyle.Edit
End Sub

In C#:

private void ultraGrid1_InitializeLayout(object sender,
  Infragistics.Win.UltraWinGrid.InitializeLayoutEventArgs e)
{
	// Turn off drop-down calendar
	e.Layout.Bands[0].Columns["OrderDate"].Style =
	  Infragistics.Win.UltraWinGrid.ColumnStyle.Edit;
}

  • UltraGrid1.KeyPress - The code in the KeyPress event tests to see if this character is targeted to the OrderDate column. Then tests to see if the character is a period ("."), and if it is the Handled property of the e object is set to True so the character will not be processed and the SendKeys.Send method called to replace the period with a slash ("/"):

In Visual Basic:

Private Sub UltraGrid1_KeyPress(ByVal sender As Object, _
  ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyPressEventArgs) _
  Handles UltraGrid1.KeyPress
	' For the OrderDate column, change the periods to slashes
	Select Case Me.UltraGrid1.ActiveCell.Column.Key
		Case "OrderDate"
			If e.KeyChar = "." Then
				e.Handled = True
				SendKeys.Send("/")
			End If
	End Select
End Sub

In C#:

private void ultraGrid1_KeyPress(object sender, KeyPressEventArgs e)
{
	// For the OrderDate column, change the periods to slashes
	switch (this.ultraGrid1.ActiveCell.Column.Key)
	{
		case "OrderDate":
			if(e.KeyChar.ToString() == ".")
			{
				e.Handled = true;
				SendKeys.Send("/");
			}
			break;
	}
}

Review

This sample projects shows how to translate user input characters as they are typed. The same concept can be used to throw out characters that are invalid and/or display a message box indicating invalid input.