User Guide
754 Chapter 6: Components Dictionary
TextInput.restrict
Availability
Flash Player 6 (6.0 79.0).
Edition
Flash MX 2004.
Usage
textInputInstance.restrict
Description
Property; indicates the set of characters that a user can enter in the text field. The default value is
undefined. If this property is null or an empty string (""), a user can enter any character. If this
property is a string of characters, the user can enter only characters in the string; the string is
scanned from left to right. You can specify a range by using a dash (-).
If the string begins with
^, all characters that follow the ^ are considered unacceptable characters.
If the string does not begin with
^, the characters in the string are considered acceptable. The ^
can also be used as a toggle between acceptable and unacceptable characters.
For example, the following code allows A-Z except X and Q:
Ta.restrict = "A-Z^XQ";
You can use the backslash (\) to enter a hyphen (-), caret (^), or backslash (\) character, as shown
here:
\^
\-
\\
When you enter the \ character in the Actions panel within double quotation marks, it has a
special meaning for the Actions panel’s double-quote interpreter. It signifies that the character
following the
\ should be treated as is. For example, you could use the following code to enter a
single quotation mark:
var leftQuote = "\’";
The Actions panel’s restrict interpreter also uses \ as an escape character. Therefore, you may
think that the following should work:
myText.restrict = "0-9\-\^\\";
However, since this expression is surrounded by double quotation marks, the following value is
sent to the restrict interpreter:
0-9-^\, and the restrict interpreter doesn’t understand this value.
Because you must enter this expression within double quotation marks, you must not only
provide the expression for the restrict interpreter, but you must also escape the Actions panel’s
built-in interpreter for double quotation marks. To send the value
0-9\-\^\\ to the restrict
interpreter, you must enter the following code:
myText.restrict = "0-9\\-\\^\\\\";