The Limits property is a 2-element numeric vector that specifies the minimum and maximum value of the object. The Step property specifies the amount by which the value is incremented or decremented by the spin buttons. The current value in the object is defined by the Thumb and Value properties, which are usually identical. If ReadOnly is 0, the user may type a value into the edit field which will be validated and converted according to the FieldType. In this case, the Value and the Thumb properties may be different.

An alternative way to use the Spinner object is to specify the Items property. This defines a discrete set of values through which the user may cycle, and the object behaves rather like a Combo without a drop-down list. In this case, the Limits property is automatically set to (1,⊃⍴Items), Thumb refers to the index into the list of Items, and Step specifies the amount by which this index is updated by the spin buttons. For example, if you set Step to 3, the spin buttons would display every third item. The Items property may be a character matrix, a vector of character vectors, or a numeric vector and will be formatted according to the FieldType. For example, if you wanted the user to select one of a set of specific dates, you would set the FieldType to Date or LongDate and the Items property to the day numbers (since 1 January 1900) corresponding to the dates you require. The ReadOnly property specifies whether or not the user may enter data into the edit field. A value typed in by the user will be converted and formatted according to the FieldType but need not correspond to a value in Items.

In operation, the value in the Spinner is adjusted by the Step each time one of the spin buttons is clicked. If the user holds a spin button down, the value is adjusted at the rate defined for the keyboard repeat rate. Furthermore, the size of each adjustment is increased according to the length of time the button stays depressed. After 1 second, the amount is increased to (2 × Step). after 2 seconds, to (4 × Step), after 3 seconds to (8 × Step) and so forth until the amount of adjustment exceeds one quarter of the range (Limits[2]⍎Limits[1]).

When the value in the spinner reaches its top or bottom limit, it will wrap around to the opposite limit if the value of the Wrap property is 1 (the default). Otherwise it will stick.

The MaxLength property defines the maximum number of characters that the user may type into the edit field. The Decimals property specifies the number of decimal places to which a numeric value is displayed and applies only if the FieldType is Numeric or LongNumeric.

The Spinner generates two special events, Spin and SetSpinnerText. The Spin event is generated each time the value of the Thumb is about to be updated and reports the new value and the difference between it and the current value. You may prevent the Thumb from being updated by returning 0 from a callback function, or you may alter the new value of the Thumb by returning a modified message. The SetSpinnerText event is generated after the Thumb has been reset but before the edit field has been updated. It reports the new value of the Thumb and the text that is about to be written into the edit field. By returning a modified event message from a callback, this event allows your application to respond dynamically to the spin buttons and to control the text in the edit field directly.

Like an Edit object, the Spinner has a Changed property and generates a Change event when loses the focus after the value of its Text and/or Thumb property has been altered.

If FieldType is Numeric, LongNumeric, Currency, Date, LongDate or Time, the Spinner will generate a BadValue event when it loses the focus if the text in the edit field (that is, the Text property) is in conflict with the FieldType property and cannot be converted to an appropriate number, or is outside the range specified by the Limits property. If the edit field is empty, a BadValue event will be generated if ValidIfEmpty is 0, but not if it is set to 1.