Question

I want a user to input time, so like 12:00, but I need to figure out a few things and I am wicked lost.

1. Can I limit the text to 5 characters and how?

2. Can I have a colon embedded in the code so that it can’t be deleted by the user?

3. Finally, can I take that code and verify that it is only the digits (ignoring the colon of course)

Answer 1

The answer is to use a JFormattedTextField and a MaskFormatter.

For example:

String mask = "##:##";
MaskFormatter timeFormatter = new MaskFormatter(mask);
JFormattedTextField formattedField = new JFormattedTextField(timeFormatter);

The Java compiler will require that you catch or throw a ParseException when creating your MaskFormatter, and so be sure to do this.