Get formatted date with text box

Question

Hello

I am working on a Wpf project. I want to enter data in date format as "DD.MM.YYYY" with a text box. But when the user types "01", "." When it says "02" it says "." I want the dot mark to be added automatically. How can I do this with Regex or otherwise?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi,@fatih uyanık. For entering date in TextBox, automatically add . , you could refer to the following code.

<TextBox x:Name="textBox" TextChanged="DateTextBox_TextChanged"  Height="50" Background="Beige"/>

Codebedhind:

 private void DateTextBox_TextChanged(object sender, TextChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            if (sender is TextBox textBox)
            {
                var text = textBox.Text.Replace(".", "");
                if (text.Length >= 2 && text.Length < 4)
                {
                    textBox.Text = text.Insert(2, ".");
                    textBox.Select(textBox.Text.Length, 0);
                }
                else if (text.Length >= 4)
                {
                    textBox.Text = text.Insert(2, ".").Insert(5, ".");
                    textBox.Select(textBox.Text.Length, 0);
                }
            }
        }

The result:

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Answer 2

To automatically add a dot after the user enters the day and month in a specific date format "DD.MM.YYYY" in a WPF TextBox, you can use a combination of event handlers and string manipulation. Here's an example of how you can achieve this:

1. Add a TextBox control to your WPF project XAML code:

<TextBox x:Name="DateTextBox" TextChanged="DateTextBox_TextChanged" />

1. In the code-behind file (e.g., MainWindow.xaml.cs), add the following event handler for the TextChanged event of the TextBox:

private void DateTextBox_TextChanged(object sender, TextChangedEventArgs e)
{
    TextBox textBox = (TextBox)sender;
    string text = textBox.Text.Trim();

    // Remove any non-digit characters from the input
    text = Regex.Replace(text, @"\D", "");

    if (text.Length >= 3)
    {
        // Insert a dot after the day and month
        text = text.Insert(2, ".");

        // If the year is entered, append it after the dot
        if (text.Length > 5)
        {
            text = text.Insert(5, ".");
        }
    }

    textBox.Text = text;
    textBox.CaretIndex = text.Length; 
}

In this event handler, we remove any non-digit characters from the input using a regular expression (Regex). Then, we check if the text length is greater than or equal to 3, indicating that the user has entered the day and month. We insert a dot after the second character (day) and, if the year is entered, after the fifth character (month).

By setting the TextBox's Text property, we update the displayed text with the added dots. Finally, we set the CaretIndex to the end of the text to maintain the cursor position.

With this implementation, as the user types "01", it will automatically add the dot, and when they enter "02", it will add another dot after "01", resulting in "01.02".

Answer 3

Hi Can it be done with Regex? Or could it be with DateTimeInfo?

Answer 4

Hello

Serkan, I want to learn one last thing. Can we make this code sensitive to the current culture?

Answer 5

You need to create a new instance of the DateTimeInfo class and specify the format of the date value as "dd.MM.yyyy". This format specifies that the day should be represented by two digits, followed by a dot mark, then the month represented by two digits, followed by another dot mark, and finally the year represented by four digits.

DateTimeFormatInfo dateTimeFormat = new DateTimeFormatInfo();
dateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern = "dd.MM.yyyy";

Next, you can use the PreviewTextInput event of the text box to automatically add the dot marks when the user types the day or the month. In the event handler, you can check the length of the text in the text box and add the dot mark if necessary.

private void TextBox_PreviewTextInput(object sender, TextCompositionEventArgs e)
{
    TextBox textBox = sender as TextBox;
    int selectionStart = textBox.SelectionStart;
    int selectionLength = textBox.SelectionLength;

    string newText = textBox.Text.Remove(selectionStart, selectionLength);
    newText = newText.Insert(selectionStart, e.Text);

    if (newText.Length == 2 || newText.Length == 5)
    {
        newText += ".";
        textBox.Text = newText;
        textBox.SelectionStart = selectionStart + 1;
        textBox.SelectionLength = 0;
        e.Handled = true;
    }
}

Finally in your XAML

<TextBox x:Name="DateTextBox" PreviewTextInput="TextBox_PreviewTextInput"/>

Hope this is what you want.