Windows Forms - customizing MaskedTextBox

Question

I need to use basic functionality of the MaskedTextBox. I can get use of the 5 digit mask but there are few things that I want to change. Right now the box is looking like this:

and there are two thing I don't like. First - the Prompt char which is undersoce _. I deleted the field value in order to leave it empty (as I would like it to appear) but this gives an error - The property value is invalid. So is there a way to get rid of these underscores? And second - I use this value for one of my entity properties which is of integer type so I make a convertion :

if (txtNumOfAreas.Text != "")
            {
                string temp = txtNumOfAreas.Text;
                bool result = Int32.TryParse(temp, out convertValue);
                if (result)
                {
                    entity.AreasCnt = convertValue;
                }
                else
                {
                    MessageBox.Show(Resources.ERROR_SAVE, "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error);
                    return false;
                }
            }
            else
            {
                entity.AreasCnt = null;
            }

which works fine unless someone decides to make experiments and insert something like _1__5_ then the conversion fails, but at first place I would like to make possible to write the digits only one after another. So is this possible too?

Answer 1

It looks like your MaskedEdit is more trouble than it's worth to deal with your particular range of issues. A better control to use might be the NumericUpDown.

The upside to NumericUpDown:

• There are no underscore prompts to try and get rid of
• It will only accept numeric input
• So there is no need to try and convert the value. You will always have an integer
• Setting Minimum and Maximum value properties gives you automatic data entry validation
• Provides multiple modes of data entry:
  • Typing
  • Clicking up/down buttons with a mouse
  • Up/down with keyboard
• If you like, you could hide the up/down buttons altogether: C# WinForms numericUpDown control (removing the spin box)

Answer 2

So to get the _ to be a space you just need to set the mask character to a single space. And to resolve the conversion error, just set the AllowPromptAsInput property to false so that the user can't actually end up with something like your example.