<Validate Type="RegEx">

The Regular Expression validator prevents the form from being submitted unless the target control's value matches a regular expression you supply. Use it for phone numbers, postal codes, custom IDs, or any pattern that has a specific format you need to enforce.

Common patterns

• US phone: \(\d{3}\)\s+\d{3}\-\d{4} matches (503) 555-1234
• US ZIP: \d{5}(-\d{4})? matches 97201 or 97201-1234
• Date (yyyy-mm-dd): \d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}
• For email addresses, prefer <Validate Type="Email"> which has a built-in pattern

Example

<AddForm>
  ...
  <table>
    <tr>
      <td>
        <Label For="txtPhone" Text="Phone" />
        <TextBox Id="txtPhone" DataField="Phone" DataType="string" />
        <Validate Type="RegEx" Target="txtPhone"
                  ValidationExpression="\(\d{3}\)\s+\d{3}\-\d{4}"
                  Message="The phone number must be in the format: (999) 999-9999" />
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">
        <AddButton Text="Add" />&nbsp;<CancelButton Text="Cancel" />
        <ValidationSummary />
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</AddForm>

Properties

Property	Values	Default	Description
Type *	RegEx		Identifies this as a Regular Expression validator
Target *	control ID		ID of the control to validate
ValidationExpression *	regex pattern		The regular expression the value must match
CssClass	string		CSS class name(s) for styling the validator's error display
Display	Static Dynamic	Dynamic	Whether the validator reserves layout space when no error is shown
EnableClientScript	True False	True	When True, validation runs in the browser as well as on the server
Height	size		Height of the validator's error display
Message	string		Text shown in the <ValidationSummary> when validation fails
Text	string		Text shown inline at the validator's location when validation fails
Width	size		Width of the validator's error display

* Required property

Deprecated Properties

These properties use ASP.NET inline styling and are no longer recommended for modern web development. Use the CssClass property to apply CSS classes or the Style property for inline CSS instead.

Property	Values	Description
BackColor	color name | #dddddd	Background color of the validator's error display
BorderColor	color name | #dddddd	Border color
BorderStyle	NotSet None Dotted Dashed Solid Double Groove Ridge Inset Outset	Border style
BorderWidth	size	Border width
Font-Bold	True False	Bold text
Font-Italic	True False	Italic text
Font-Names	string	Font family name
Font-Overline	True False	Overline text decoration
Font-Size	XX-Small X-Small Small Medium Large X-Large XX-Large or size	Font size
Font-Strikeout	True False	Strikethrough text decoration
Font-Underline	True False	Underline text decoration
ForeColor	color name | #dddddd	Text color. Note: the validator hard-codes red, bold text by default. If you set CssClass, XMP automatically clears ForeColor so your stylesheet's color rules take effect

Property Details

• Type: Set to RegEx to identify this as a Regular Expression validator.

• Target: The ID of the form control whose value should be checked.

• ValidationExpression: The regular expression pattern the value must match. The pattern is implicitly anchored — the entire input must match (it's not a substring search). Both client-side (JavaScript regex) and server-side (.NET regex) validation use this same pattern, so stick to syntax both engines support.

• Message: The error text shown in the <ValidationSummary> (if you have one) when validation fails. If no <ValidationSummary> is present, this text appears at the validator's location instead.

• Text: The text shown inline at the validator's location when validation fails. Used together with Message and <ValidationSummary>: a short inline marker (*, **, or an icon) at the validator + the full sentence in the summary block.

• Display: Whether the validator reserves layout space even when no error is shown. Dynamic (the default) collapses to no space until validation fails. Static always reserves space.

• EnableClientScript: When True (the default), the validator runs in the browser before the form is submitted, giving the user immediate feedback. Set to False to force server-side-only validation.