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Length and/or Character validation within a Form

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Bruce Case
Bruce Case ✭✭✭✭✭

When creating a Form, I would like to be able to specify and/or limit the number of characters added to a specific field.  As an example, when we ask for the UID (such as mine being U28CT27). Today, I can only give them a free flow box, but in this case, I would like to validate a length of 7 ---- and for extra strength, be able to specific alpha, numeric, both.

33
33 votes

On Wishlist · Last Updated

Our team is definitely evaluating guardrails that could improve data collection accuracy. While limiting character length is not a part of our current plan, this is exactly the kind of thing our team is thinking about every day. Please keep adding your use case to the comments below! If we believe we can make this idea a reality, we'll plan to update the status here.

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Comments

  • Courtney S.
    Courtney S. ✭✭✭✭
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    I would really love to have this. We have a commonly-used form where some of the single-line text boxes could really use something like a 50-character length limit. They need to be freeform text answers, so we can't apply any of the current validation rules, but the PDF that we map the responses to can only really handle an answer up to about 50 characters in length.

  • JMOORE3123
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    Currently, when building forms we have a feature that allow for data input validation. You can select that the field only accept numbers or that the format is an email, etc.

    FEATURE REQUEST: One input validation option that would be very valuable to me is one where you can limit the numbers of characters input. And also allow for mixed characters (letter and numbers).

    For example, when it comes to employee IDs, we have a set number of characters such as JT1245 or BL658W. Having this feature where I can limit the number of characters, it would help to prevent errors when our users are entering the data.

  • Paula_
    Paula_ ✭✭✭
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    I to would find this useful as well as having it show the user how many characters they have left as they are filling in.

  • Stephanie Denier
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    We have a form that includes a "description" field whose value will later be used in our company's inventory system. In that system, "description" has a character limitation and we've had a few form submissions that needed to be revised because the requester went over the character limit.

    If that additional validation existed, we could have the right information the first time, and prevent requesters from making those errors.

  • Jakub Lenczowski
    Jakub Lenczowski ✭✭✭✭
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    I am happy to have numeric field possibility to be used in forms but the problem is that I cannot limit it to exact number of characters. Additionally I cannot indicate taht I would like to have specific divider between them. Would be great to have such possibility.

  • blairla
    blairla ✭✭
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    Would love the ability to set a character restriction in text/number fields when creating a form. Not only would it help with data validation for IDs, but for longer description fields, it can really trip up a fillable PDF when people enter a lot of info :(

  • J.Naylor
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    I would like supplement this request: to add a validation option to not allow negative numbers when selecting number validation. I'm using the form with the Text > Number Validation feature (e.g., attendance). Some users submit negative numbers (maybe by accident?) which should only be zero or positive numbers, and this affects our reports.

    Seeking an alternate/workaround: Is there a way to swiftly adjust these entries in the grid? We have been using Ctrl F to search for - and then adjusting those fields.

    This can be cumbersome with larger data sets.

  • Justin.Harvey
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    I am in the same boat as all you guys - I think there needs to be a way to format cells/columns in the Smartsheet view that then flows through to the Form field validation. This should be similar to the way that Excel uses th controls within Custom Formats for fields, where the spacing can be controlled (i.e. the user enters 11 digits (for example, ABN) and the system automatically breaks it into 2-3-3-3).

  • Josh Reed
    Josh Reed ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited 12/12/23
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    This is definitely a need. Even if we couldn't limit the characters... if there was some way to incorporate a len function somewhere... or some way to show how many characters have been used... at least that would be something and we could include in the question explanation/prompt that the user's entry needs to be less than x characters.

  • MitchM
    MitchM ✭✭
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    Agree with this request and the need to have this added as a standard feature.

  • Liz W
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    Add my vote! We use account numbers in XXXXXXXXX-XXXXX format and being able to restrict entry to that format would solve a lot of headaches!

  • Megan_ClavieParker
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    I came here to make the same suggestion. I'd like to be able to select a character limit for text fields in a form. I have a form with Employee ID and Cost Center fields, and currently no way to limit the entries to the right character length. It would really boost the data validation for these fields.

  • gregthomas
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    Another vote for this capability. Even if the sheet can ultimately hold 4,000 characters in a cell, if we could limit that number in a form through the form's validation settings, that would be amazing.

  • speck
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    As so many others have said, there are a number of systems that my team uses values that come in through SmartSheet forms to search or populate. Expanding the validation option of form entries to include formatting, character limit, etc. would make my life so much easier.