Author: William Gerbert

How to use only numerical input in a TEdit

Answer:

If you want to limit the input of a TEdit to numerical strings only, you can 
discard the "invalid" characters in its OnKeyPress event handler.

Let's assume that you only want to allow positive integer numbers. The code for the 
OnKeyPress event handler is as follows: 
1   
2   procedure TForm1.Edit1KeyPress(Sender: TObject; var Key: Char);
3   begin
4     // #8 is Backspace
5     if not (Key in [#8, '0'..'9']) then
6     begin
7       ShowMessage('Invalid key');
8       // Discard the key
9       Key := #0;
10    end;
11  end;


If you also want numbers with a decimal fraction, you must allow a POINT or a 
COMMA, but only once. For an international version that looks at the correct 
decimal separator, the code could be as follows: 
12  
13  procedure TForm1.Edit1KeyPress(Sender: TObject; var Key: Char);
14  begin
15    if not (Key in [#8, '0'..'9', DecimalSeparator]) then
16    begin
17      ShowMessage('Invalid key: ' + Key);
18      Key := #0;
19    end
20    else if (Key = DecimalSeparator) and
21      (Pos(Key, Edit1.Text) > 0) then
22    begin
23      ShowMessage('Invalid Key: twice ' + Key);
24      Key := #0;
25    end;
26  end;


And here's a full blown version of the event handler, accepting a decimal separator 
and negative numbers (minus sign: only accepted once, has to be the first 
character): 
27  
28  procedure TForm1.Edit1KeyPress(Sender: TObject; var Key: Char);
29  begin
30    if not (Key in [#8, '0'..'9', '-', DecimalSeparator]) then
31    begin
32      ShowMessage('Invalid key: ' + Key);
33      Key := #0;
34    end
35    else if ((Key = DecimalSeparator) or (Key = '-')) and
36      (Pos(Key, Edit1.Text) > 0) then
37    begin
38      ShowMessage('Invalid Key: twice ' + Key);
39      Key := #0;
40    end
41    else if (Key = '-') and
42      (Edit1.SelStart <> 0) then
43    begin
44      ShowMessage('Only allowed at beginning of number: ' + Key);
45      Key := #0;
46    end;
47  end;


How about giving that same behaviour to several TEdits on the same form, say 10 of 
them? In the Object Inspector, you change the name of the event handler of Edit1 
from Edit1KeyPress to Edit1_10KeyPress or something similar. Delphi automatically 
changes the name in the code editor, don't worry. 

Then, for each next TEdit, you select its OnKeyPress event and you select 
Edit1_10KeyPress from the listbox next to the event. 

Finally, we have to slightly adapt the code. Intead of pointing to Edit1, we must 
point to "the TEdit that generated the event", in other words: the edit-box where 
the cursor was when a key was depressed. When you look at the template for the 
event handler that Delphi made, you see the parameter Sender: that's a pointer to 
the component that generated the event. But we are not allowed to use it straight 
away in our code, we must specify that we're dealing with a component of the type 
TEdit. That's done with the code Sender as TEdit: 
48  
49  procedure TForm1.Edit1_10KeyPress(Sender: TObject; var Key: Char);
50  begin
51    if not (Key in [#8, '0'..'9', '-', DecimalSeparator]) then
52    begin
53      ShowMessage('Invalid key: ' + Key);
54      Key := #0;
55    end
56    else if ((Key = DecimalSeparator) or (Key = '-')) and
57      (Pos(Key, (Sender as TEdit).Text) > 0) then
58    begin
59      ShowMessage('Invalid Key: twice ' + Key);
60      Key := #0;
61    end
62    else if (Key = '-') and
63      ((Sender as TEdit).SelStart <> 0) then
64    begin
65      ShowMessage('Only allowed at beginning of number: ' + Key);
66      Key := #0;
67    end;
68  end;