Retrieve unformatted text from JFormattedTextField

Question

Hi everyone,
I'm using FormattedTextField to define my formatted text fields and I'm using MaskFormatter to set the format.
I've been trying (with no success :( ) to find a way to retrieve the unmasked text that has been set for a text field.
For example, if the formatter is :
new MaskFormatter("(###)###-###"), then the text field will display the input as:
(342)123-455.
I need to retrieve the text as : 342123455.
I expected to find a parse or a getUnmaskedText methods in one of these class, but there is none.
Any idea will be appreciated.
Thanks!

Answer 1

Maybe I'm missing something but here is the code:
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.text.MaskFormatter;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.util.*;
import java.text.*;
import javax.swing.text.*;
public class FormatEx3 extends JPanel {
MaskFormatter formatter1 = null;
private JFormattedTextField field1;
private JButton getValueBtn;
public FormatEx3() {
super(new GridLayout(1, 3));
setUpField1();
displayFields();
private void displayFields() {
getValueBtn = new JButton("Get Phone NUmber");
add(new JLabel("Phone:"));
add(field1);
add(getValueBtn);
getValueBtn.addActionListener(new ButtonAdapter());
private void setUpField1() {
try {
formatter1 = new MaskFormatter ("(###)###-####");
formatter1.setPlaceholderCharacter('_');
field1 = new JFormattedTextField(formatter1);
field1.setFocusLostBehavior(JFormattedTextField.PERSIST);
} catch (java.text.ParseException exc) {
public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Formatted Text Field Demo");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setSize(500, 70);
frame.getContentPane().add(new FormatEx3());
frame.setVisible(true);
class ButtonAdapter implements java.awt.event.ActionListener {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
try {
String str = (String) formatter1.stringToValue("[phone]");
System.out.println("stringToValue: " + str);
field1.commitEdit();
String str1 = formatter1.valueToString(field1.getValue());
System.out.println("valueToString: " + str1);
} catch (ParseException ex) {
System.out.println(ex.getMessage());
Using formatter1.stringToValue("...") with a string that's not formatted return a parse exception. Try: formatter1.stringToValue("1234567890").
Using formatter1.stringToValue("[phone]") returns [phone].
valueToString returns the formatted text or a parse exception is the string is incomplete: (111)23_-____
I hope I explained myself correctly.
I want to get/set unformatted text using a Formatter.
I've also tried to set an unformatted text to the field by using setText.
This call: field1.setText("1234567890") - will truncate the last 2 digits ....
So, again. My application saves the unformatted data. I want to be able to display it as formatted but retrieve it and set it as unformatted data.
Thanks everybody!