Mask configuration in EJ2 TypeScript Maskedtextbox control

29 Aug 202317 minutes to read

The mask is a combination of standard and custom mask elements that validates the user input based on its behavior.

When the mask value is empty, the MaskedTextBox behaves as an input element with text type.

Standard mask elements

The following table shows the list of mask elements and its behavior based on MSDN standard.

The mask can be formed by combining any one or more of these mask elements.

Mask Element Description
0 Digit required. This element will accept any single digit from 0 to 9.
9 Digit or space, optional.
# Digit or space, optional, Plus(+) and minus(-) signs are allowed.
L Letter required. It will accept letters a-z and A-Z.
? Letter or space, optional.
& Requires a character.
C Character or space, optional.
A Alphanumeric (A-Za-z0-9) required.
a Alphanumeric (A-Za-z0-9) or space, optional.
< Shift down. Converts all characters to lower case.
> Shift up. Converts all characters to upper case.
| Disable a previous shift up or shift down.
\\ Escapes a mask character, turning it into a literal.
All other characters Literals. All non-mask elements (literals) will appear as themselves within MaskedTextBox.

The following example demonstrates the usage of standard mask elements.

import { MaskedTextBox } from '@syncfusion/ej2-inputs';

// initializes the MaskedTextBox component
let mask1: MaskedTextBox = new MaskedTextBox({
        // sets mask with the mask element '#' which accepts any single digit from '0' to '9',
        // space, + and - signs
        mask: '#####',
        placeholder: 'Mask ##### (ex: 012+-)',
        floatLabelType: 'Always'
});

mask1.appendTo('#mask1');

let mask2: MaskedTextBox = new MaskedTextBox({
        // sets mask format with the mask element 'L' which allows only alphabets('A-Z and a-z')
        mask: 'LLLLLL',
        placeholder: 'Mask LLLLLL (ex: Sample)',
        floatLabelType: 'Always'
});

mask2.appendTo('#mask2');

let mask3: MaskedTextBox = new MaskedTextBox({
        // sets mask format with the mask element '&' which allows `alphabets`, `numbers`
        // and `special characters`
        mask: '&&&&&',
        placeholder: 'Mask &&&&& (ex: A12@#)',
        floatLabelType: 'Always'
});

mask3.appendTo('#mask3');

let mask4: MaskedTextBox = new MaskedTextBox({
        // sets mask format with the mask element `>` which converts all characters that follow
        // to upper case and `<` which converts all characters that follow to lower case
        mask: '>LLL<LLL',
        placeholder: 'Mask >LLL<LL (ex: SAMple)',
        floatLabelType: 'Always'
});

mask4.appendTo('#mask4');

let mask5: MaskedTextBox = new MaskedTextBox({
        // sets mask format with the mask element '\\' which turns mask element `A` into
        // a literal and it displays the alphabet `A`
        mask: '\\A999',
        placeholder: 'Mask \\A999 (ex: A321)',
        floatLabelType: 'Always'
});

mask5.appendTo('#mask5');
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>EJ2 MaskedTextBox</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="TypeScript MaskedTextBox Component With Standard Masks" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/28.1.33/ej2-base/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/28.1.33/ej2-inputs/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
    <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
    <div id='container'>
        <div class='wrap'>
            <input id="mask1" type="text" />
        </div>
        <div class='wrap'>
            <input id="mask2" type="text" />
        </div>
        <div class='wrap'>
            <input id="mask3" type="text" />
        </div>
        <div class='wrap'>
            <input id="mask4" type="text" />
        </div>
        <div class='wrap'>
            <input id="mask5" type="text" />
        </div>
    </div>
    </div>
</body>

</html>
#container {
    visibility: hidden;
}

#loader {
  color: #008cff;
  font-family: 'Helvetica Neue','calibiri';
  font-size: 14px;
  height: 40px;
  left: 45%;
  position: absolute;
  top: 45%;
  width: 30%;
}

.wrap {
  margin: 20px auto;
  width: 240px;
}

Custom mask elements

Other than the above standard mask elements, the mask can be configured with the custom characters or regular expression to define a custom behavior.

Custom characters

You can define any of the non-mask element as the mask element and its behavior through the customCharacters property.

In the following example, non-mask element P accepts the values P, A, p, a, and M accepts the values M, m as mentioned in the custom characters collection.

import { MaskedTextBox } from '@syncfusion/ej2-inputs';

// initializes the MaskedTextBox component
let mask: MaskedTextBox = new MaskedTextBox({
    // sets custom characters collection for non-mask elements 'P' and 'M'
    customCharacters: {
        P: 'P,A,a,p',
        M: 'M,m'
    },
    // sets mask format to the MaskedTextBox
    mask: '00:00 >PM',
    placeholder: 'Time (ex: 10:00 PM, 10:00 AM)',
    floatLabelType: 'Always'
});

mask.appendTo('#mask');
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>EJ2 MaskedTextBox</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="TypeScript MaskedTextBox Component" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/28.1.33/ej2-base/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/28.1.33/ej2-inputs/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
    <div id='container'>
        <div class='wrap'>
            <input id="mask" type="text" />
        </div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>
#container {
    visibility: hidden;
}

#loader {
  color: #008cff;
  font-family: 'Helvetica Neue','calibiri';
  font-size: 14px;
  height: 40px;
  left: 45%;
  position: absolute;
  top: 45%;
  width: 30%;
}

.wrap {
  margin: 0 auto;
  width: 240px;
}

.label {
    font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', 'sans-serif';
    font-size: 14px;
}

Regular expression

Instead of the mask element, you can define your own regular expression to validate the input of a particular input place. The regular expressions should be wrapped by the square brackets (e.g., [Regex]).

In the following example, regular expression has been set for each input places.

import { MaskedTextBox } from '@syncfusion/ej2-inputs';

    // Render the Masked Textbox
     let mask: MaskedTextBox = new MaskedTextBox({
         placeholder: 'IP Address (ex: 212.212.111.222)',
         floatLabelType: 'Always',
         mask: '[0-2][0-9][0-9].[0-2][0-9][0-9].[0-2][0-9][0-9].[0-2][0-9][0-9]'
    });
    mask.appendTo('#mask');
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>EJ2 MaskedTextBox</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="TypeScript MaskedTextBox Component" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/28.1.33/ej2-base/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/28.1.33/ej2-inputs/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
    <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
    <div id='container'>
        <div class='wrap'>
            <input id="mask" type="text" />
        </div>
    </div>

</html>
#container {
    visibility: hidden;
}

#loader {
  color: #008cff;
  font-family: 'Helvetica Neue','calibiri';
  font-size: 14px;
  height: 40px;
  left: 45%;
  position: absolute;
  top: 45%;
  width: 30%;
}

.wrap {
  margin: 0 auto;
  width: 240px;
}

Prompt character

The Prompt character is a prompting symbol in the MaskedTextBox for the mask elements. The symbol is used to show the input positions in the MaskedTextBox. You can customize the prompt character of MaskedTextBox by using the promptChar property.

The following example demonstrates the MaskedTextBox with customized prompt character as *.

import { MaskedTextBox } from '@syncfusion/ej2-inputs';

// initializes the MaskedTextBox component
let mask: MaskedTextBox = new MaskedTextBox({
        // sets the prompting symbol to the MaskedTextBox
        promptChar: "#",
        // sets mask format to the MaskedTextBox
        mask: '999-999-9999'
});

mask.appendTo('#mask');
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>EJ2 MaskedTextBox</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="TypeScript MaskedTextBox Component" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/28.1.33/ej2-base/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/28.1.33/ej2-inputs/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
    <div id='container'>
        <div class='wrap'>
            <input id="mask" type="text" />
        </div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>
#container {
    visibility: hidden;
}

#loader {
  color: #008cff;
  font-family: 'Helvetica Neue','calibiri';
  font-size: 14px;
  height: 40px;
  left: 45%;
  position: absolute;
  top: 45%;
  width: 30%;
}

.wrap {
  margin: 0 auto;
  width: 240px;
}

.label {
    font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', 'sans-serif';
    font-size: 14px;
}