How to customise input mask in MS Access to input a vehicle registration number?

[Devadath Sreelayam]

I was trying to make a database for my pollution testing centre. It requires the registration number of vehicles. In india the normal format of vehicle registration number is



AB 12 XY 1234 or AB 12 1234 or AB 12 X 1234


Where AB denotes the first two letters of respective states and the coming 12 denotes the two digit number of respective registration office. The letters XY and 1234 denotes the number of specific vehicle (it varies). But for new registration offices, the letters XY may be missing or may be X only.

How can I make an input mask that can withstand all these conditions?

[June7]

I tried, can't. Build a VBA custom function that will verify input is valid structure.

There really is no need to save this composite identifier in table. Have each component entered in a separate field. Use code to combine them. A simple expression concatenating fields can do that.