Convert to Uppercase?

Richard_Summers · February 17, 2014, 12:23am

Hi,
Is it possible to convert a TextField into upper case automatically.

My users will probably type in lower case - but when they click on the SAVE button, I would like all of the TextFields to be converted to uppercase before they are saved to the database.

I have looked in the Language Reference under TextField, but can not see anything relevant??

Can anyone please help me.

thank you all in advance.

DaveS · February 17, 2014, 12:38am

Or do it in real time in the TextField TEXTCHANGE event

me.text=me.text.uppercase

Kem_Tekinay · February 17, 2014, 1:35am

If you use Dave’s suggestion, you will also need some sort of flag to keep from going into a TextChange loop.

Richard_Summers · February 17, 2014, 1:42am

Thanks guys - all OK now

Michel_Bujardet · February 17, 2014, 8:57pm

[quote=65751:@Dave S]Or do it in real time in the TextField TEXTCHANGE event

me.text=me.text.uppercase[/quote]

This prevents excessive loop :

if me.text<>me.text.uppercase then me.text = me.text.uppercase end if

Tim_Hare · February 17, 2014, 9:36pm

Did you test that? I wouldn’t expect it to work, because string comparison in Xojo isn’t case sensitive. Use strcomp instead.

Kem_Tekinay · February 17, 2014, 10:55pm

And setting a Boolean flag, even as a static, would be faster anyway.

Kem_Tekinay · February 17, 2014, 11:05pm

Actually, scratch that. A static would be a terrible way to do it.

Michel_Bujardet · February 17, 2014, 11:23pm

You are right, of course.

if strcomp(me.text,me.text.uppercase,0)<>0 then me.text = me.text.uppercase end if

Speed is not an issue here. Even the fastest typist will never be as fast as code.

Kem_Tekinay · February 17, 2014, 11:52pm

I’m not sure what that means. If the field contains 5k of text, it’s faster to check a Boolean than to compare the string with each character typed.

Michel_Bujardet · February 18, 2014, 1:07am

You are right. I tend to look at text fields for short amounts of text. 5K looks much more like a Text Area.

I must be limited, I do not see how to use a flag to prevent repeat execution.

But on the other hand, TextChange is not really recurrent. So whenever it happens, me.Text = me.text.Uppercase would just work fine in most cases where the user enters lowercase. Strcomp would be of use to prevent execution when user enters uppercase.

Maybe a flag could be used from Keydown by detecting lowercase. But then if the user pastes lowercase, it would not work…

Tim_Hare · February 18, 2014, 1:17am

More like

static flag as boolean
if not flag then
   flag = true
   me.text = me.text.uppercase
   flag= false
end

Just don’t use static in subclass code because it’s shared across all instances and could produce unpredictable results. Make it a property instead. Static is probably fine in event code in the window.

Michel_Bujardet · February 18, 2014, 1:26am

[quote=65976:@Tim Hare]static flag as boolean
if not flag then
flag = true
me.text = me.text.uppercase
flag= false
end[/quote]

I do not see how your flag works. If not flag then flag = false ?

J_Andrew_Lipscomb · February 18, 2014, 1:55am

Exactly. I prefer to write it in a slightly different style:

if alreadyChanging then //do nothing Else alreadyChanging = true Me.text = me.text.Uppercase alreadyChanging = false End if

I just find that version easier to read. Works the same.

Michel_Bujardet · February 18, 2014, 9:55am

[quote=65986:@J Andrew Lipscomb]Exactly. I prefer to write it in a slightly different style:

if alreadyChanging then //do nothing Else alreadyChanging = true Me.text = me.text.Uppercase alreadyChanging = false End if

I just find that version easier to read. Works the same.[/quote]

Same difference. As it stands, code executes at every instance. The flag is entirely useless

Tim_Hare · February 18, 2014, 10:35am

Not at all. It prevents a stack overflow.

Markus_Winter · February 18, 2014, 11:11am

???

Please explain.

Beatrix_Willius · February 18, 2014, 11:15am

Because the textchange event is triggered by changing the text. Just try the code out without the alreadyChanging. It WILL make a nice crash.

Michel_Bujardet · February 18, 2014, 11:45am

First, I tested the code I posted above, and there is NO crash.

Then, WHERE do you set alreadyChanging besides in your short piece of code that makes sure alreadyChanging is always false ? As a matter of fact, this code in TextChanged executes ONLY when text is changed. So by hypothesis, only when text is changed. Your code has absolutely no effect.

Kem_Tekinay · February 18, 2014, 2:11pm

There has apparently been a change in behavior since earlier versions of Xojo/Real Studio. In past versions, any change in the text would trigger the TextChange event, so changing the text within TextChange would cause TextChange to fire again which would cause another change in the text leading to another TextChange, etc.

It appears TextChange no longer does that, as Michel has pointed out and I’ve just tested, so he’s right, that flag code is no longer needed.