TextBox.MaxLength Property
[ This article is for Windows Phone 8 developers. If you’re developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation. ]
Gets or sets the value that determines the maximum number of characters allowed for user input.
Assembly: System.Windows (in System.Windows.dll)
XMLNS for XAML: Not mapped to an xmlns.
<TextBox MaxLength="int"/>
Property Value
Type: System.Int32The maximum number of characters allowed for user input. The default is 0.
| Exception | Condition |
|---|---|
| ArgumentOutOfRangeException | The value set is less than 0. |
| ArgumentNullException | The value set is Nothing. |
Dependency property identifier field: MaxLengthProperty.
Setting a value of 0 indicates that there is no restriction on the number of characters.
Setting MaxLength only restricts the number of characters a user may input. It does not restrict the programmatic input. If the number of characters programmatically added to the text box is greater than MaxLength, then the user may delete characters, but not add any. Once the number of characters is less than MaxLength, the user may add text again.
It is allowed for the user to undo previous actions and cause the text to exceed the MaxLength.
If the user pastes text into the text box that causes the number of characters to exceed MaxLength, then the last characters in the text box are deleted.
Surrogate characters are treated as one character for the purposes of determining text length.
The following code snippets show how you can use the MaxLength property in XAML and code.
<StackPanel> <TextBox Margin="20,20,0,0" Text="A text box that demonstrates TextWrapping, TextAlignment, MaxLength, and AcceptsReturn" Width="300" Height="150" TextWrapping="Wrap" TextAlignment="Center" MaxLength="500" AcceptsReturn="True" /> <TextBox Margin="20,20,0,0" Text="A text box that demonstrates HorizontalScrollBarVisibility and VerticalScrollBarVisibility" Width="300" Height="150" AcceptsReturn="True" HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Visible" VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Visible" /> </StackPanel>
Public Sub New() MyBase.New() InitializeComponent() CreateControls() End Sub Private Sub CreateControls() 'Create stack panel Dim MyStackPanel As StackPanel = New StackPanel 'Create the first text box Dim MyTB1 As TextBox = New TextBox MyTB1.Width = 300 MyTB1.Height = 150 MyTB1.Text = "A text box that demonstrates TextWrapping, TextAlignment, MaxLength and AcceptsReturn" MyTB1.TextWrapping = TextWrapping.Wrap MyTB1.TextAlignment = TextAlignment.Center MyTB1.MaxLength = 500 MyTB1.AcceptsReturn = True MyTB1.Margin = New Thickness(20, 20, 0, 0) 'Create the second text box Dim MyTB2 As TextBox = New TextBox MyTB2.Margin = New Thickness(20, 20, 0, 0) MyTB2.Text = "A text box that demonstrates HorizontalScrollBarVisibility and VerticalScrollBarVisibility" MyTB2.Width = 300 MyTB2.Height = 150 MyTB2.AcceptsReturn = True MyTB2.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility = ScrollBarVisibility.Visible MyTB2.VerticalScrollBarVisibility = ScrollBarVisibility.Visible 'Add the text boxes to the stack panel MyStackPanel.Children.Add(MyTB1) MyStackPanel.Children.Add(MyTB2) Me.Content = MyStackPanel End Sub