The :READ command can be used to request user input. Together, the optional input check and input handling parameters can be used to:
- determine the type of UI control that will be displayed (e.g., a text field or a combo box)
- in the case of combo boxes, determine the choices displayed in the menu
- in the case of number controls, determine the range of numbers that can be chosen
- validate user input, limiting what values an input field will accept
Here are some examples.
| Input Check | Input Handling | Type of UI control displayed | Validation performed on field contents (allowed input) |
|---|
| 00 | K |  Text | No validation of input; any Latin-1 character may be entered. |
| 00 | | Text | Letter characters must be uppercase. |
| YYYYMMDD | | Text | Any date in the format YYYYMMDD (See: time & formats) |
| 0-9,A-F | |  Text | Any number between 0 and 9, or any letter between A and F |
| 5-10 | | Text | Between 5 and 10 characters |
| 5-10 | N |  Number | Any number between 5 and 10 |
| 'A-1','B-2' | |  Menu | Either the string A-1 or the string B-2 |
| A,B,C,1,2,3 | | Menu | Any character in the set A,B,C,1,2,3 |
| A,B,C,1,2,3 | O | Combo box | Any character, either from the menu, or typed in manually |
Does anyone know of other combinations? Specifically, are there ways to do any of these things?
- Additional control types
radio buttons
multi-select controls like check boxes
time, date, or timestamp controls
- Additional types of input validation
- ranges that includes negative numbers
- ranges of times, dates, or timestamps
This question originates in the discussion Generate input dialog box dynamically from prompt set object.