Limiting entry length in a textbox
This tip describes how to limit the ammount of characters that may be entered into a field.
This only works in R5/Win32 environments. Fields must have the property "Native OS Style" selected.
These scripts use Win32 API calls to change the window class attributes of the selected field and limit the number of characters the user can enter. The following example limits entries in a specific field to 25 characters.
If the user continues to type after 25 characters have been entered, he or she will hear an error beep. If the user tries to paste in text longer than 25 characters, he or she will be unable to do so.
Code in one field does NOT affect other fields on the form unless they also contain the "Entering" code. Different fields can have different limits.
[Form Globals] Option Public Const EM_LIMITTEXT = &HC5& Declare Function GetFocus Lib "user32" () As Long Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" (Byval hWnd As Long, Byval wMSg As Long, Byval wParam As Long, lParam As Long) As Long Sub LimitText (wHandle As Long, MaxChars As Integer) Dim Result As Long If MaxChars > 0 Then Result = SendMessage(wHandle, EM_LIMITTEXT, MaxChars, 0) End If End Sub [Field Entering event] Sub Entering(Source As Field) Dim hWnd As Long hWnd=GetFocus() Call LimitText(hWnd, 25) ' Limits user to 25 chars max in this field End Sub