Rpelacing characters (*) with user input

[Brady Diggs]

Hi all -
There has to be a simple solution to this, but as far as I've searched, I've found nothing.
I have a Custom TextField that is descended from java.awt.TextField (believe me, I'd much rather use swing).
The user must enter 14 characters into this field.
The problem is, most of those characters are zeros and they have to count for every keyboard
stroke they hit.
I want to put in fourteen * so every time they enter a character, the * is replaced by
their input. That way, they see how many characters they have left because the * will be one less
for every letter or number they put in.
Like this:
**************
B*************
BN************
BNO************
BNO4**********

And so on.

Does anyone know a good way to do this?
I am an experienced developer, but have never had this challenge before.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Brady

[Michael Dunn]

> Does anyone know a good way to do this?

good - no, dodgy - yes.

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
class Testing
{
  public void buildGUI()
  {
    Panel p = new Panel();
    final TextField tf = new TextField("**************",20);
    p.add(tf);
    Frame f = new Frame();
    f.add(p);
    f.pack();
    f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
    f.setVisible(true);
    f.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter(){
      public void windowClosing(WindowEvent we){
        System.exit(0);
      }
    });
    tf.addKeyListener(new KeyAdapter(){
      public void keyReleased(KeyEvent ke){
        String userKeys = tf.getText().replaceAll("\\W","");
        tf.setText((userKeys+"**************").substring(0,14));
        tf.setCaretPosition(userKeys.length());
      }
    });
  }
  public static void main(String[] args){new Testing().buildGUI();}
}

[Brady Diggs]

Paul -
Thanks for responding.
You were right... it was a bit dodgy
Thanks for the try, though, but I need to change the characters
one at a time as they are typed.
I know there's a way to do this, but I may be limited as I am working
in 1.4
Anyway, thanks for the reply.

Brady

[Darryl Burke]

Brady Diggs wrote:Paul -

Paul?

[Brady Diggs]

So sorry, Michael. Don't know where I got Paul...
Thanks for the correction Darryl.

But thanks for the reply Michael.
But I still haven't found and elegant solution to this.
If anyone has any suggestions, I would be your slave
your life.
Thanks!

[Darryl Burke]

Rob Camick's Text Prompt may be useful.

[Brady Diggs]

Thanks Darryl!
That's not exactly what I need, but I can certainly use
some of his design.
I appreciate you pointing me to it.
Rob does it again!