Masks in Calibration Control

A mask is a way to format a field to make the data in that field look a specific way.  Calibration Control (our Calibration Management Software) gives you the ability to format some of the more important date, string, and number fields.

Date Masks

The date formatting methods used in CC are software industry standards used by MS.  For example, a date mask like MM/dd/yyyy, would format January 5, 2022 into 01/05/2022.

Here are some sample date mask results for the date of August 26, 2018 . . .

Date Masks

Mask Result
MMMM August
MMM Aug
MM 08
M August 26
dddd Monday
ddd Mon
dd 26
d 8/26/2018
yyyy 2018
yy 18
y August, 2018
[M] M
[Anything in Brackets] Anything in Brackets

Leading Zeros Mask (LZ Mask)

Leading zeros can be important in number formats if all numbers require the same minimum number of characters.  Instead of a counting number sequence of 1, 2, 3, etc. an LZ Mask of ‘000’ results in 001, 002, 003, etc.

In the case where a counting number has more characters than the mask, the counting number wins.  For instance, with a mask of 000 and a number of 5348, the result will be 5348 even though the mask has only 3 characters.

Upper Case

Calibration Control uses one special character to change the results of any mask to all upper case.  Do this by placing a lower case "u" at the end of any mask and the result will be all upper case and the "u" will be removed.

Other Characters

All the non-functional characters in masks [not date mask strings (e.g., MM, dd, or yy), LZ Masks, or the ending "u"] will display just as entered in the mask.  For example, the "DT" characters at the beginning of a mask will still be there in the formatted results.

If displaying a reserved character in a mask without it changing to a date, enclose it in [brackets].  While an M changes to August 26, an [M] in brackets displays just as an M.

Label Date Masks

There are three types of dates printed on labels that can be formatted.  The Standard Date Mask is the default date mask for all label dates unless the Equipment uses a Calibration Frequency of 'Month of' or 'Week of', which have their own date masks.

Date Masks Tab

Number Masks

The Equipment ID Auto Increment Mask gives users the ability to define a standard mask for all the new Equipment records.  The Equipment ID masks include all the mask features described above except for date.  The Current Increment is the next number CC will use in the mask when the next new Equipment record is created.  Activate or deactivate this feature by checking or unchecking the "Auto Increment New Equipment IDs" checkbox.

The Calibration Certificate Number Auto Increment provides the same masking features as the Equipment ID Auto Increment in addition to the date masking features.  The Current Increment is the next Certificate Number and this feature is active when the Auto Increment New Certificate Numbers checkbox is checked.

Number Masks Tab

Calibration Measurement Mask

The Mask field in the Measurement Group of the Calibration dialog sets the leading and trailing zeros of all the numbers in the given group.  Unlike the Leading Zeros Mask, the number of leading and trailing places of these fields are strictly limited by the mask.  For instance, a mask of 00.000 will only allow two places to the left and 3 places (rounded) to the right.  Therefore, if a number of 100 or higher is required, the mask must be modified to include three zeros to the left 000.000.

Masks Tolerances

Last Updated:  10 January 2018