When a field is formatted to include masking, the value you enter will require a specific format and character type. By requiring a specific format for an attribute, data entry and retrieval are more efficient. Once a mask is defined for an attribute, the system will validate that the value entered matches the mask for that attribute. If the attribute value does not match the mask for that attribute, the field will be marked as invalid. For example, you could configure a field to store a Social Security Number. The value would be required to be numeric and the - characters would be pre-formatted for the field. This is an example of a masked Social Security Number field before data is entered into it:
