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About field patterns and value formatting

Depending on the requirements of your situation, you can specify one or more of the following patterns to control how field values, such as text fields, numeric fields, and date/time fields are formatted at run time:

•	A display pattern, which describes how data will be displayed in the form. If you define an initial default value, it is formatted according to the display pattern. The display pattern is also responsible for formatting user input and any bound values retrieved at run time.

•	An edit pattern, which describes the syntax for entering data into a date/time field, numeric field, text field, or password field at run time.

•	A validation pattern, which is used to validate user input at run time.

•	A data pattern, which describes the syntax of bound or saved data.

The formatting options that you choose will depend on the purpose of your form. For example, if you are designing an interactive form, for each field you should define an edit pattern to process user input and a validation pattern to validate the input. You would only define a data pattern if the fields are bound to a data source.

See also 

When to use patterns

To specify a default value

To specify a display pattern

To prompt users to enter data

To specify an edit pattern

To validate user input

To specify a data pattern

About field patterns and value formatting