How to Use the MaskedEdit Control for Currency Format

The information in this article applies to:

- Professional Edition of Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows,

  version 3.0

SUMMARY

The maskededit control requires that you enter a number for each of the pound sign (#) character place holders and enter a space for each of the ampersand (&) place holders. The control tests each character you enter to make sure it matches the specified mask. This is inconvenient for currency format. For example, if the mask is #####.##, you'd have to enter 00012.25; and if the Mask is &&&&#.##, you'd have to enter four spaces and then 12.25 (as in " 12.25").

This article shows by example how to gain the flexibility of entering any number. The application uses the period (.) to define the decimal point, and right aligns the number to the decimal point. Then you can enter the pennies.

MORE INFORMATION

Step-by-Step Example

1. Start a new project in Visual Basic (ALT, F, N). Form1 is created by default.

2. Add two Masked Edit controls (MaskedEdit1 and MaskedEdit2) to Form1, and assign these properties:

      Default Name    Mask       Format      PromptChar
      -------------------------------------------------
      MaskedEdit1     #####.##   $####0.00   (Space)
      MaskedEdit2     #####.##   $####0.00   (Space)
   
   

3. Add the following code to the GotFocus event of MaskedEdit1:

      Sub MaskedEdit1_GotFocus ()
         maskededit1.SelStart = 0
         maskededit1.SelLength = Len(maskededit1)
      End Sub
   
   

4. Add the following code to the KeyPress event of MaskedEdit1:

      Sub MaskedEdit1_KeyPress (keyascii As Integer)
         Call Masked_Key_Press(MaskedEdit1, keyascii)
         If keyascii = 13 Then SendKeys "{tab}"
      End Sub
   
   

5. Add the following code to the GotFocus event of MaskedEdit2:

      Sub MaskedEdit2_GotFocus ()
         maskededit2.SelStart = 0
         maskededit2.SelLength = Len(MaskedEdit2)
      End Sub
   
   

6. Add the following code to the Keypress event of MaskedEdit2:

      Sub MaskedEdit2_KeyPress (keyascii As Integer)
         Call Masked_Key_Press(MaskedEdit2, keyascii)
         If keyascii = 13 Then SendKeys "{tab}"
      End Sub
   
   

7. Add the following Sub procedure to the general declarations section of the form:

      Sub Masked_Key_Press (MskEdit As MaskEdBox, keyascii As Integer)
   
         ' Calculate the location of the decimal point in the mask:
         mask_cents_pos = InStr(MskEdit.Mask, ".")
         mask_dollars = mask_cents_pos - 1
   
         ' Check for period keypress:
         If keyascii = 46 And MskEdit.SelStart < 6 Then
            tlen = MskEdit.SelStart + 1       ' Store current location.
            MskEdit.SelStart = 0
            MskEdit.SelLength = tlen          ' Highlight up to the current
            tempo = MskEdit.SelText           ' position & save selected text.
            MskEdit.SelLength = mask_dollars
            MskEdit.SelText = ""              ' Clear to the left of decimal.
            MskEdit.SelStart = mask_cents_pos - tlen
            MskEdit.SelLength = tlen           ' Reposition caret
            MskEdit.SelText = tempo            ' and paste copied data.
            MskEdit.SelStart = mask_cents_pos  ' Position caret after cents.
         End If
      End Sub
   
   

8. Press the F5 key to run the program. Enter numbers, and observe the result when you press the period (decimal point) key.