[AccessD] Practical way to handle non-standard length "long text" fields

[John Colby]

I was thinking a generic class which wraps a specific text box which is
passed in to the class.  Then the class reads that length property out.
Use Withevents to sink the keydown and check the length every time it
fires.  Check the length (because the key could be a delete or something
which actually shortens the length) and when the length equals the max, so
something such as change the back color or put up a message box.

You can now use this class for any text box,  Or every text box.

On Thu, Mar 7, 2024 at 9:31 AM Ryan Wehler <wrwehler at gmail.com> wrote:

> John,
>  I considered trying to 'class up' the textboxes. My idea would have been
> to have a local table with the form name, field name and maximum length and
> read that in as the class initializes for the textbox/combo box in question
> and use some events to catch the KeyDown or OnChange.
>
> Right now there's just a couple textboxes that are giving me grief so I
> wasn't sure if it was worth writing a class module at this point in time.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 7, 2024 at 8:25 AM John Colby <jwcolby at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > LOL one of my favorite sayings - "Wish in one hand and spit in the other.
> > See which one fills up faster."
> >
> > Given which fills up faster, of course I would suggest a class but we all
> > know where that would go.  Something about hammers IIRC.
> >
> > Would you like me to build a class for you?
> >
> > On Thu, Mar 7, 2024 at 8:50 AM Ryan Wehler <wrwehler at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Thanks Rocky!
> > >
> > > I guess my wish was that Access read in the field length for fields
> like
> > > this and applied that more gracefully.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Wed, Mar 6, 2024 at 3:00 PM Rocky Smolin <rockysmolin2 at gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Ryan:
> > > >
> > > > I don't know of a good way to handle this. I have used KeyDown to
> good
> > > > advantage when I wanted to inspect every keystroke in a text field.
> But
> > > > it's a little kludgey.
> > > >
> > > > Two ideas: I believe if you use the input mask property to allow a
> > > textbox
> > > > to take a maximum number of characters. It will not allow any more
> > > > characters than that input mask allows. So at 500 characters no more
> > > input
> > > > would be accepted. But that won't generate a message to the user.
> And I
> > > > don't know if you can input mask a text box to limit to that high of
> a
> > > > number of characters.
> > > >
> > > > A second thought would be to accept the data into an unbound text box
> > and
> > > > in the Lost Focus event, test for the length of the string that was
> > > input -
> > > > copy it to the bound text box if shorter than your Max length, or
> give
> > a
> > > > message to the user that their entered text was too long and then
> shift
> > > the
> > > > focus back to the unbound text box.
> > > >
> > > > HTH
> > > >
> > > > r
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Wed, Mar 6, 2024 at 7:01 AM Ryan Wehler <wrwehler at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Is there any practical way to handle non-standard VARCHAR(MAX)
> "long
> > > > text"
> > > > > fields in access?
> > > > >
> > > > > If I set one to VARCHAR(500), Access still treats it as Long
> > Text(MAX)
> > > > and
> > > > > the user doesn't really know it's going to be a problem until they
> > exit
> > > > the
> > > > > field and an error pops up.
> > > > >
> > > > > Ideally what I'd like is for access to just stop typing as it it
> > would
> > > if
> > > > > you hit the char limit for the field.  Is there a way to do that
> > > without
> > > > > using OnChange or KeyDown events to count characters up and warn
> the
> > > > user?
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> > --
> > John W. Colby
> > Colby Consulting
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-- 
John W. Colby
Colby Consulting