JFormattedTextField : Java Glossary

by Roedy Green ©1996-2008 Canadian Mind Products
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JFormattedTextField

A tool in JDK 1.4+ to let you format output and input. JFormattedTextField needs the auxiliary help of MaskFormatter to key phone numbers (250) 361-9093, Zip+4, credit card numbers etc. It needs the help of NumberFormatter and DecimalNumberFormat to deal with numbers. These in turn rely on Documentfilters and NavigationFilters. However, out the box, the fool thing is too dumb to even stop the user from entering alpha characters into a numeric field. Think of it as a complicated Lego set to create usable data entry classes. It works typically by doing a validation when a the component loses focus. I have never heard anyone wax enthusiastically about it. For true keystroke-level validation you may have to write your own from scratch. There is no AWT equivalent, at least in the standard class Library.

You might have more success with AbstractDocument.setDocumentFilter( DocumentFilter ) where you implement a custom DocumentFilter to limit input.

Learning More

Sun’s Javadoc on the JFormattedTextField class : available:

on the web at java.Sun.com
in the JDK 1.6.0_06 or in JDK 1.5.0_15 on your local J: drive.

Sun’s Javadoc on the DocumentFilter class : available:

on the web at java.Sun.com
in the JDK 1.6.0_06 or in JDK 1.5.0_15 on your local J: drive.

AWT
JTextField
Swing
TextField

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