Examples of the Usage of Masks and Regular Expressions
Examples of Masks and Regular Expressions
The following table provides examples of masks and regular expressions you might use.
| Object | Description |
|---|---|
| United States Phone Numbers | The input mask (###) ###-#### forces
users to enter the three-digit area code in parentheses, with the
other seven digits separated by a hyphen (-) in two groups:
one with three digits and the other with four digits. Note: If certain input values will always have the same
characters, just type the characters within the
mask. |
| United States Postal Codes | If you want users to enter a five-digit ZIP code followed by a
mandatory four-digit extension, use the mask
#####-####. If,
however, you want to make the four-digit extension optional, use a
regular expression, such as
/^\d{5}([\-]\d)?$/; |
| Canadian Postal Codes | The mask >L#L #L# ensures that the postal code will be entered as two
three-character groups separated by a space:
Only the following letters are actually allowed: A, B, C,
E, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, V, X, and Y.
The following regular expression ensures that the postal code
will comply with this rule too:
|
| United Kingdom Postcodes | The format of United Kingdom postcodes may be represented by a set of masks:
Some letters (CIKMOV) are not allowed in these codes.
Because only one mask is allowed, you can create a regular
expression such as the following for United Kingdom postal
codes:
|
Regular Expression Usage in Password Masks
In some cases, you may need to specify a regular expression to enforce the company's password policies. For example, a regular expression could define valid and invalid characters, specific formats (for example, the password must begin with a letter), or minimum and maximum password lengths. Below are some examples of regular expressions and their explanations:
^(?=.*\d).{4,8}$: The password must be four to eight characters long and include at least one numeric digit.^[a-zA-Z]\w{3,9}$: The password must be four to ten characters long, the first character must be a letter, and no character is permitted except letters, numbers, and underscores.