Question

i need to enter mobile number in a text field.

i need to display mobile number like this format 123-456-7890.

for eg: 1234567890 is my mobile number,while am entering this mobile number in text field,

for first 3 digits i need to place -,after 3 digits again i need to place -.

if i enter 123 then automatically place – in text field,after 456 place ,no need of placing for further 4 digits.

similar to displaying text in currency format.

but while getting text from that text field i need to get mobile number no need of – like 1234567890,not 123-456-7890.

i think my question is quite clear now,let me add comment if is not.

Thank u in advance.

Answer 1

Just to clarify: As a user enters a phone number into a UITextField, you would like it to automatically insert dashes in the proper places.

The answer is in using the UITextFieldDelegate protocol.

1) Set your controller object as a delegate for the UITextField.

2) You’ll find the following method in the protocol:

- (BOOL)textField:(UITextField *)textField shouldChangeCharactersInRange:(NSRange)range replacementString:(NSString *)string

This method is called every time a character change occurs in the text field.

3) How robust you want your implementation to be is up to you. You could simply do a count of the current characters and insert dashes after 3 and 6 characters. It would be wise to also reject any non-numeric characters.

Here is a sample implementation. We basically take over the field editing manually – Inserting dashes after the appropriate string lengths and making sure the user can only enter numbers:

- (BOOL)textField:(UITextField *)textField shouldChangeCharactersInRange:(NSRange)range replacementString:(NSString *)string {
    NSCharacterSet *numSet = [NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"0123456789-"];
    NSString *newString = [textField.text stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:range withString:string];
    int charCount = [newString length];

    if ([newString rangeOfCharacterFromSet:[numSet invertedSet]].location != NSNotFound
        || [string rangeOfString:@"-"].location != NSNotFound
        || charCount > 12) {
        return NO;
    }

    if (charCount == 3 || charCount == 7) {
        newString = [newString stringByAppendingString:@"-"];
    }

    textField.text = newString;

    return NO;
}