! – this symbol means that non-obligatory symbols in input strings are filled with “spaces” in the beginning of the string. If there is no such symbol in the mask, this means that “spaces” will be added in the end of input string instead of non-obligatory symbols.
> –all following after “>” symbols will be in upper case. It works until end of mask or until symbol “<” appears.
< – all following after “<” symbols will be in lower case. It works until end of mask or until symbol “>” appears.
<> – this 2 symbols, appearing together, means that case checking (of symbols entered by user) will not be done and data will be left in the same kind, how they were entered by user.
\ – symbol, following after “\” will be output in mask and will not be available for user editing. You can use this symbol to output special symbols.
L – demands to enter letter in this place.
l – allows to enter letter in this place, but doesn’t demand it.
А – demands to enter letter or number in this position.
а – allows to enter letter or number in this position.
С – entering of any symbol is required in this position
с – allows to enter any symbol in this position, but doesn’t demand it.
0 – entering of a number is required in this position.
9 – allows to enter a number in this position
# – allows to enter number, “+” or “–“ in this position
: – is used for division hours, minutes, seconds in time. If in regional settings any other symbol is set for division, it will be used instead of “:”.
/ – is used for division months, days and year in data. If in regional settings any other symbol is used for division, it will be used instead of “/”.
; – is used for division of 3 parts of the mask
_ – automatically enters “spaces” in the text. When user enters symbols in input string, cursor automatically jumps mask symbols “_”
All other symbols (not described above) may be added in the first part of the mask as usual letter symbols. In input string they will be left on the same places, that were entered in mask by user, cursor will automatically skip them. Special mask symbols can be added in a string, if you put symbol “\” before them.
Second part of mask consists of 1 symbol. This symbol defines, if alphabetic characters are included in result text or not. For example, as a mask for telephone number (with city code) may be used this string: (000)_000-0000;0;*
Number ‘zero’ in the second part shows, that there will be only 10 input numbers in result string, though the mask itself consists of 14 symbols.
Third part of the mask is a symbol, that shows positions, where information is not entered yet.