A short string field allows for up to 30 characters to be entered.
When creating a short string field, you may want to restrict the types of strings that can be entered. You can do this by selecting a string format for the field. There are five formats that can be applied to a short string:
| • | No format – all characters are accepted (default) |
| • | Numeric Only – when selected, only numeric characters (0-9) characters are accepted |
| • | Uppercase Only – when selected, all alphabetic characters are displayed in uppercase |
| • | Alphanumeric Only – when selected, only letters and numbers can be entered |
| • | Alphanumeric Uppercase Only – when selected, only letters and numbers can be entered, and all alphabetic characters are displayed in uppercase |
You can also apply a mask to a short string. A mask is used to add static characters to a string, such as parentheses, spaces or dashes. A capital X is used as a placeholder to represent alphanumeric characters that will appear in the string. All other characters will be used to change the way the string is displayed after it has been entered.
For example:
Mask |
String |
Formatted String |
XXX-XXXX-XX |
123456789 |
123-4567-89 |
q: XXX (X) |
ABCD |
q: ABC (D) |
The string mask is useful when you need to format a phone number in a non-US format.
The special characters in the mask don't save in the table. One the actual data is stored and the mask is applied when displaying the data.
If you are not using a string mask, you can select the maximum number of characters that can be entered into the string field. The maximum number of characters will default to 30 if not selected.
