Xamarin.Tips – Restrict the Length of Your Entry Text

Here’s a quick one on how to restrict the number of characters a user can enter in an Entry. Basically, we are going to create a custom Behavior and then apply it to our Entry.

EntryLengthValidatorBehavior.cs

 /// <summary>
    /// Behavior that restricts the length of an entry
    /// </summary>
    public class EntryLengthValidatorBehavior : Behavior<Entry>
    {
        public int MaxLength { get; set; }

        protected override void OnAttachedTo(Entry bindable)
        {
            base.OnAttachedTo(bindable);
            bindable.TextChanged += OnEntryTextChanged;
        }

        protected override void OnDetachingFrom(Entry bindable)
        {
            base.OnDetachingFrom(bindable);
            bindable.TextChanged -= OnEntryTextChanged;
        }

        void OnEntryTextChanged(object sender, TextChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            var entry = (Entry)sender;

            if (entry.Text.Length > this.MaxLength)
            {
                string entryText = entry.Text;
                entry.TextChanged -= OnEntryTextChanged;
                entry.Text = e.OldTextValue;
                entry.TextChanged += OnEntryTextChanged;
            }
        }
    }

Now we can apply it in our Xaml:

<Entry x:Name="Pin1" TextColor="White">
    <Entry.Behaviors>
        <behaviors:EntryLengthValidatorBehavior MaxLength="4"/>
    </Entry.Behaviors>
</Entry>

If you like what you see, don’t forget to follow me on twitter @Suave_Pirate, check out my GitHub, and subscribe to my blog to learn more mobile developer tips and tricks!