Text field patterns

The following symbols must be used to create text patterns for text fields.

Note: The comma (,), dash (-), colon (:), slash (/), period (.), and space ( ) are treated as literal values and can be included anywhere in a pattern. To include a phrase in a pattern, delimit the text string with single quotation marks ('). For example, 'Your phone number is ('999')' 999-9999 can be specified as the Display Pattern.

Text symbol

Description

Example

A 

Single alphabetic character

Display Pattern: A9A 9A9

Input Value: K1S5K2

Formatted Value: K1S 5K2

X 

Single character

Display Pattern: XXX XXX

Input Value: !1$5&2

Formatted Value: !1$ 5&2

O 

Single alphanumeric character

Display Pattern: OO OO OO

Input Value: 123ABC

Formatted Value: 12 3A BC

0 

Single alphanumeric character

Display Pattern: 00 00 00

Input Value: 123ABC

Formatted Value: 12 3A BC

9 

Single digit

Display Pattern: 999-9999

Input Value: 9407000

Formatted Value: 940-7000

Note: The O (capital “o”) and 0 (zero) symbols are intentional synonyms in recognition that these two characters are often mistyped and misread.

Reserved symbols

The following symbols have special meanings and cannot be used as literal text.

Symbol

Description

? 

When submitted, the symbol matches any one character. When merged for display, it becomes a space.

* 

When submitted, the symbol matches 0 or Unicode white space characters. When merged for display, it becomes a space.

+ 

When submitted, the symbol matches one or more Unicode white space characters. When merged for display, it becomes a space.

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