I think the reasoning here is Microsoft wanted to give more control to the users over the process of formating and parsing the data. If you only entered information into a property, then you wouldn't have the control like you do with a method. I would not be surprised to see this change in a future release to also add a mask property to allow for easy formatting.

Here is a link to a third-party tool that allows masking in .NET:

http://www.syncfusion.com/products/tools/features/tools_feat_9.asp


>Hi Cathi,
>
>It sounds like a lot of work just to enter (661) 765-4321 into a textbox and have it saved to the database as 6617654321. Any good controls that I can purchase that allow masked input like VFP 6.0?
>
>By the way, why do you think Microsoft did not include this capability in .net. GeekWhiz; we have been entering the standard telephone, social security numbers and dates as long as I can remember and thats a long time. It has not changed just like 8 bits is still a byte. I was under the impression that programming should be getting easier!!!!!
>
>Thanks
>Roland
>
>============================================================================
>
>>Hi Roland,
>>
>>In .NET you need to use the Parse and Format methods to format your control. Refer to Message #670154 for sample code.
>>
>>To format the text, you use regular expressions as Bonnie mentioned in her message. Use her second link to look up the regular expressions to use for your needs. There are samples given.
>>
>>>Hi everyone. Hope everone is having a good Sunday.
>>>
>>>WinForm Controls
>>>
>>>How do you specify an Editing and Display format string in a control properties window for a Textbox, ComboBox etc. for editing and displaying the values that you entered or display with a format?
>>>
>>>Label Display
>>>
>>>Telephone Number (999) 999-9999
>>>Social Security Number 999-99-9999
>>>Department Number 9999
>>>Dates mm/dd/yy
>>>
>>>Format charsacters not to be included with stored to the SQL Database.
>>>
>>>Thanks
>>>Roland