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Entering a SSN has never been solved

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Posted on by subsguts

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If anyone has a simple solution that will allow the user to enter a social security number and have it automatically add the "-" please let me know.

I don't believe this has ever been solved. @mdevaney posted a solution that works for US phone numbers, but this solution is very complicated for what it does and the killer of it is it won't allow for a number that starts with a 0, which some social securities do.

Therefore, I'm wondering does everyone else just have the users either:

A. Enter just the number

B. Enter it as text and required them to type the hyphens.

I've searched and if there is a simple way to do this without sliders, timers, etc. I would LOVE to see it posted here. The fact that PowerApps doesn't support Input masking as a property is a big miss by MS. The fact that it hasn't been fixed is sad.

Thanks!

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WarrenBelz 153,034 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @subsguts ,

One way would be to do the following - set the format to Text and DelayOutput to true then OnSelect as well as on the end of your save code (and anywhere else you need to reset it)

UpdateContext({varSSN: Blank()})

Default

varSSN

If this is in a Form and you want to also show the current value

Coalesce( varSSN, ThisItem.YourFieldName )

OnChange

If( IsNumeric(Self.Text) && Len(Self.Text) = 9, UpdateContext( { varSSN: Left( Self.Text, 3 ) & "-" & Mid( Self.Text, 4, 2 ) & "-" & Right( Self.Text, 4 ) } ); Reset(Self) )

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leonsig93 229 on at

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Do you need it to get formatted as they input it or just need it formatted in your dataset?

I managed to get something simple, though not as fancy as the auto-format. Also not sure if this is what your looking for/if it would work.

I set up two fields, one text input and then a text label.
In the text input just set MaxLength to 9, set a the OnChange property to Set(gvarFormat, true) and set DelayOutput to true. Did that to try and somewhat simulate the auto format. gvarFormat is just so the formatted display field doesn't just show --.

In the Text control, I set this as the value:
If( gvarFormat = false, "", Concatenate( Left( txtSocial_Input.Value, 3 ), "-", Mid( txtSocial_Input.Value, 4, 2 ), "-", Right( txtSocial_Input.Value, 4 ) ) )

So you get this:
Just gotta reset the gvarFormat to false for the next social. OnChange can be a bit weird so it might look funky if they type slowly but it'll get the job done. You could even hide the formatted field and just use it for your patch or form control's Update property.. Wit patch, you could just write that formula directly in and just not have the display field.

I also sort of got it to be automatic, but it gets real weird if they don't type it all at once. Would probably need to add a timer delay but like you said that also opens up a whole different can of crazy.

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leonsig93 229 on at

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Wait I might have figured it out?

So, its definitely a strange way to do it. But no timers or sliders or anything.

Definitely needs some variables that have to get reset after each social that you add.

So you take a Text Input control (using modern) and set the following properties:
MaxLength = If(gvarFormatted = "", 9, 11) DelayOutput = true Value = gvarFormatted OnChange = Set( gvarFormat, true ); If( Len(Self.Value) = 9, Set( gvarFormatted, Concatenate( Left( Self.Value, 3 ), "-", Mid( Self.Value, 4, 2 ), "-", Right( Self.Value, 4 ) ) ) )
This way if you slowly input the social the field doesn't bug out cause it'll wait till it sees 9 numbers. Then it formats it and that changes the MaxLength to account for the dashes.
Couple digits
then the time it took me to screenshot and paste it over here and add the last 4
You just need to add a button or something that has this in it:
OnSelect = Set(gvarFormat, false);Set(gvarFormatted, ""); Reset(txtSocial_Input_1)
txtSocial_Input_1 is just the name of my Text Input.

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leonsig93 229 on at

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Didn't see this since I had the editor open, my bad @WarrenBelz 😅

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WarrenBelz 153,034 Most Valuable Professional on at

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@leonsig93 (I assume you are also @subsguts ,

I did not bother with the MaxLength as it only triggers on 9 numeric characters (I see you have deleted the Numeric test), but yes, the Boolean Variable is another slightly different way of doing it. I am not into Modern Controls at this point, but if it works for you, that is good. I assume this is now solved ?

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leonsig93 229 on at

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Hey @WarrenBelz , no I'm a different user. I was writing up my post while testing how to do it and didn't notice you had already replied cause I hadn't refresh the page in a while 😅.

Didn't think to add validation to make sure they only input numbers.

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subsguts 1,259 Moderator on at

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Thanks @WarrenBelz and @leonsig93 , I'm just now waking up (different time zone :-)) to all these responses so I'm going to check it out this morning.

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EddieE 4,641 Moderator on at

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@subsguts

This video gives some further ideas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=povxwFZ4yik

Using it, I got this working - which isn't quite there

// Add a TextInput // Format Text // Default varTempTextInput // OnChange UpdateContext({varTempTextInput: Text(Value(Self.Text), "0##-##-####")})

This can solve the '0' issue you mention but needs some work to manage number of values entered.

Hope it can help?

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subsguts 1,259 Moderator on at

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@WarrenBelz I finally got to try this. I used the varSSN as the Default to keep it simple to start. I type in my SSN and when I leave the field it clears it. I put a label above it and set it to the varSSN, which shows the SSN formatted, but I'm not sure what I did wrong so that it clears the Text Input field.

Before I move to the next field:

After I move to the next field:

Any ideas? Thanks

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subsguts 1,259 Moderator on at

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I'm going to try out all the solutions offered and if they all work then I'll mark all of them as solutions. As we all know there is always more than one way to skin the PowerApps cat 🙂 lol

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