# Seeking Assistance with Automatic Hyphens After Two Letters in Text Field **URL:** \ **Category:** Questions about Thunkable X\ **Tags:** beginner, help\ **Created:** [March 20, 2024, 1:27pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168 "2024-03-20T13:27:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wvbz7kxyvw377oi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/wvbz7kxyvw377oi/32/173125_2.png) [@wvbz7kxyvw377oi](https://community.thunkable.com/u/wvbz7kxyvw377oi)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 1:27pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/1 "2024-03-20T13:27:04Z")
I want there to be automatically a hyphen in the text box after 2 letters, and then be able to continue writing normally. Right now, it’s almost correct, but when I enter two more letters after the hyphen, the whole thing repeats. Thank you for your help, I’m an absolute beginner. ![Bildschirmfoto 2024-03-20 um 00.25.31](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/3/9/39433fe83124dc26ca5323f3355b9f35259263fb.png) ---
**Author:** ![tatiang](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/tatiang/32/55482_2.png) [@tatiang](https://community.thunkable.com/u/tatiang)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 1:38pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/2 "2024-03-20T13:38:17Z")
Hi and welcome to Thunkable! Those blocks look like they should work this way: You type “hi” You see **HI-** You then type “bye” You see **HI-BYE** Are you instead seeing **HI-BYE-**? Are you able to share a link to the project? I’m curious to try it out and see if I can understand why it might not be working. ---
**Author:** ![wvbz7kxyvw377oi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/wvbz7kxyvw377oi/32/173125_2.png) [@wvbz7kxyvw377oi](https://community.thunkable.com/u/wvbz7kxyvw377oi)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 5:05pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/3 "2024-03-20T17:05:48Z")
When I conduct the live test on the PC, it works perfectly as desired, but when I try to do the live test with my phone, it doesn’t work. I’ve also downloaded and installed the app, but the problem persists. This is how it looks: I type “hi” I see HI- I try type “bye” after two letters this is what i see HI-BHI-BY when i press the “e” from bye I see HI-BHI-BYH ("\<- Max amount of letters i set) ---
**Author:** ![beatbaba7leb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c57346/32.png) [@beatbaba7leb](https://community.thunkable.com/u/beatbaba7leb)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 5:48pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/4 "2024-03-20T17:48:01Z")
May be you need set your logic as … Remove all hyphens from the List…Text input And insert hyphen in (list …removed hyphen text input) at position 3,6,9 etc. ---
**Author:** ![tatiang](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/tatiang/32/55482_2.png) [@tatiang](https://community.thunkable.com/u/tatiang)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2024, 7:25pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/5 "2024-03-20T19:25:25Z")
You might need to first set a variable’s value to the text input’s text and then set the text input’s text to join the variable to a hyphen. Again, if you want to post a link to your project I can see about a fix. ---
**Author:** ![wvbz7kxyvw377oi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/wvbz7kxyvw377oi/32/173125_2.png) [@wvbz7kxyvw377oi](https://community.thunkable.com/u/wvbz7kxyvw377oi)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 1:20am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/6 "2024-03-21T01:20:54Z")
Yes, I’ll send the link. Is there actually a way to compare the entered text with the content from the Data\_Viewer\_List to avoid saving the same thing twice? When you open the project, you’ll see what I mean. I hope you understand what I mean; I am German and not very good at English. [https://x.thunkable.com/copy/e2232a7dc91728439cd618d514a708fb](https://x.thunkable.com/copy/e2232a7dc91728439cd618d514a708fb) ---
**Author:** ![tthompson41231](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/tthompson41231/32/161401_2.png) [@tthompson41231](https://community.thunkable.com/u/tthompson41231)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 1:30am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/7 "2024-03-21T01:30:53Z")
Do it this way or you won’t be able to backspace/delete the hyphen as it will continue to add it when only two letters are present. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/9/9/99d8bd8f8305bf1850d21df66eaba4a0ee955940.png) ---
**Author:** ![tthompson41231](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/tthompson41231/32/161401_2.png) [@tthompson41231](https://community.thunkable.com/u/tthompson41231)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 1:47am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/8 "2024-03-21T01:47:37Z")
I’m not sure which list of values you need because I don’t know German so set the list of values to the correct one. The list of values gets a whole column of data. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/0/7/07a6a3613ce50830b20ac1e96742c098aef5bd14.png) ---
**Author:** ![wvbz7kxyvw377oi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/wvbz7kxyvw377oi/32/173125_2.png) [@wvbz7kxyvw377oi](https://community.thunkable.com/u/wvbz7kxyvw377oi)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 2:16am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/9 "2024-03-21T02:16:33Z")
So it works on my PC, as it did before. It doesn’t work on my phone; when I enter the third letter, it copies the first two. Like this: I type: “hi” I see: HI I type “b” And this comes out: HI-HIB It is possible my Handy is the problem ? 😅 ---
**Author:** ![tthompson41231](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/tthompson41231/32/161401_2.png) [@tthompson41231](https://community.thunkable.com/u/tthompson41231)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 2:23am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/10 "2024-03-21T02:23:30Z")
It works for me on mobile and my PC. If it doesn’t work by following that picture, show your blocks. Also, make sure you add that Not block ---
**Author:** ![wvbz7kxyvw377oi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/wvbz7kxyvw377oi/32/173125_2.png) [@wvbz7kxyvw377oi](https://community.thunkable.com/u/wvbz7kxyvw377oi)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 2:31am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/11 "2024-03-21T02:31:50Z")
I really think it’s my phone. I just opened it again; it was still open in the task manager, and it worked once, but unfortunately not anymore. ![Bildschirmfoto 2024-03-21 um 03.25.05](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/4/a/4abb4ce605b97b4113ae8210f9b83c9024a91a54.png) ---
**Author:** ![tthompson41231](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/tthompson41231/32/161401_2.png) [@tthompson41231](https://community.thunkable.com/u/tthompson41231)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 2:38am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/12 "2024-03-21T02:38:26Z")
Close the app on your phone and try again. It does work on my end so It must be your phone like you said. [https://res.cloudinary.com/dwdvpzphr/video/upload/v1710988886/mlj8mdvc3822suv9dxqk.mp4](https://res.cloudinary.com/dwdvpzphr/video/upload/v1710988886/mlj8mdvc3822suv9dxqk.mp4) ---
**Author:** ![tatiang](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/tatiang/32/55482_2.png) [@tatiang](https://community.thunkable.com/u/tatiang)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 2:20pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/13 "2024-03-21T14:20:13Z")
I don’t know if you have this problem or not but I have to quit Thunkable Live every time I want to preview a change I made. It doesn’t auto-sync with my project from Chrome on my desktop. ---
**Author:** ![beatbaba7leb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c57346/32.png) [@beatbaba7leb](https://community.thunkable.com/u/beatbaba7leb)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 3:16pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/14 "2024-03-21T15:16:24Z")
Same thing on Android live app… after two three refreshes I need to quit app and relauch to see the changes… ---
**Author:** ![tthompson41231](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/tthompson41231/32/161401_2.png) [@tthompson41231](https://community.thunkable.com/u/tthompson41231)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 4:17pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/15 "2024-03-21T16:17:24Z")
All the time. It’s just a habit now of closing the app everytime. ---
**Author:** ![wvbz7kxyvw377oi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/wvbz7kxyvw377oi/32/173125_2.png) [@wvbz7kxyvw377oi](https://community.thunkable.com/u/wvbz7kxyvw377oi)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2024, 11:21pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/16 "2024-03-21T23:21:49Z")
oday a friend was at my place, and we tried it with his phone (also Android), and he encountered the same problem. After nearly despairing today to solve the whole thing, I just had another idea to solve the problem and wanted to ask first if the whole thing is possible as I imagined. If yes, I can start working on it and try to implement it. However, I believe it will work. My idea is to use 2 different text input fields. So, one on the left, then a hyphen in a label that only becomes visible once something is entered in Text\_Input1, and then another text field right next to it. When I confirm the whole thing with Enter, it will be merged so that I can continue using it on Screen2. ---
**Author:** ![beatbaba7leb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c57346/32.png) [@beatbaba7leb](https://community.thunkable.com/u/beatbaba7leb)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 12:07am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/17 "2024-03-22T00:07:31Z")
Have you tried solution posted above . Anything is possible but you need to put efforts ---
**Author:** ![tthompson41231](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/tthompson41231/32/161401_2.png) [@tthompson41231](https://community.thunkable.com/u/tthompson41231)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 12:48am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/18 "2024-03-22T00:48:56Z")
Try a wait time 0.1 second ---
**Author:** ![tatiang](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/tatiang/32/55482_2.png) [@tatiang](https://community.thunkable.com/u/tatiang)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 1:59pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/19 "2024-03-22T13:59:27Z")
Can you post a new link to your project? ---
**Author:** ![wvbz7kxyvw377oi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/wvbz7kxyvw377oi/32/173125_2.png) [@wvbz7kxyvw377oi](https://community.thunkable.com/u/wvbz7kxyvw377oi)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2024, 12:41am UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168/20 "2024-03-26T00:41:40Z")
Sorry for the late reply, I almost gave up but here’s the link again. [https://x.thunkable.com/copy/2ced8d3dedad8c1020bf88b6fe9d2e16](https://x.thunkable.com/copy/2ced8d3dedad8c1020bf88b6fe9d2e16) [Next page](https://community.thunkable.com/t/seeking-assistance-with-automatic-hyphens-after-two-letters-in-text-field/2905168.md?page=2)