Allow entry in QLineEdit only within range of QDoubleValidator

That's because QDoubleValidator returns QValidator::Intermediate if the value is outside the bounds and QLineEdit accepts QValidator::Intermediate values.

To implement the behavior you want you can make your own QDoubleValidator subclass like this:

class MyValidator : public QDoubleValidator
{
public:
    MyValidator(double bottom, double top, int decimals, QObject * parent) :
        QDoubleValidator(bottom, top, decimals, parent)
    {
    }

    QValidator::State validate(QString &s, int &i) const
    {
        if (s.isEmpty()) {
            return QValidator::Intermediate;
        }

        bool ok;
        double d = s.toDouble(&ok);

        if (ok && d > 0 && d < 15) {
            return QValidator::Acceptable;
        } else {
            return QValidator::Invalid;
        }
    }
};

---

UPDATE: This will solve the negative sign issue, and also will accept locale double formats:

class MyValidator : public QDoubleValidator
{
public:
    MyValidator(double bottom, double top, int decimals, QObject * parent) :
        QDoubleValidator(bottom, top, decimals, parent)
    {
    }

    QValidator::State validate(QString &s, int &i) const
    {
        if (s.isEmpty() || s == "-") {
            return QValidator::Intermediate;
        }

        QChar decimalPoint = locale().decimalPoint();

        if(s.indexOf(decimalPoint) != -1) {
            int charsAfterPoint = s.length() - s.indexOf(decimalPoint) - 1;

            if (charsAfterPoint > decimals()) {
                return QValidator::Invalid;
            }
        }

        bool ok;
        double d = locale().toDouble(s, &ok);

        if (ok && d >= bottom() && d <= top()) {
            return QValidator::Acceptable;
        } else {
            return QValidator::Invalid;
        }
    }
};

It is possible to do this also without subclassing.

lineEdit = new QLineEdit();
connect(lineEdit,SIGNAL(textChanged(QString)), this, SLOT(textChangedSlot(QString)));

QDoubleValidator *dblVal = new QDoubleValidator(minVal, maxVal, 1000, lineEdit);
dblVal->setNotation(QDoubleValidator::StandardNotation);
dblVal->setLocale(QLocale::C);
lineEdit->setValidator(dblVal);

Setting of the locale may be important because it defines which characters are interpreted as a decimal separator. Format of the input string defines which locales should be used.

In the textChangedSlot, we can validate input this way:

QString str = lineEdit->text();
int i = 0;
QDoubleValidator *val = (QDoubleValidator *) lineEdit->validator();
QValidator::State st = val->validate(str, i);

if (st == QValidator::Acceptable) {
    // Validation OK
} else {
    // Validation NOK
}

In this case also QValidator::Intermediate state is interpreted as a failed case.

If we connect textChanged -signal to the textChangedSlot, validation is done after every input field change. We could also connect editingFinished() or returnPressed() -signals to the validation slot. In that case, validation is done only when user stops editing the string.

I tried the excellent class above and it still needs a couple edits. The decimal point search was reducing the range specified by "top" because it returned a "-1" when there is no decimal point. I added a conditional statement that fixes that.

Also, it still needs to be tweaked for the case where the user tries to delete the decimal point and the resulting value is larger than the range. Right now it just prohibits that behavior rather than changing it to the maximum value which seems more intuitive to me.

class MyValidator : public QDoubleValidator
{
    public:
    MyValidator(double bottom, double top, int decimals, QObject * parent) :
    QDoubleValidator(bottom, top, decimals, parent)
    {
    }

    QValidator::State validate(QString &s, int &i) const
    {
        if (s.isEmpty() || s == "-") {
            return QValidator::Intermediate;
        }

        QLocale locale;

        QChar decimalPoint = locale.decimalPoint();
        int charsAfterPoint = s.length() - s.indexOf(decimalPoint) -1;

        if (charsAfterPoint > decimals() && s.indexOf(decimalPoint) != -1) {
            return QValidator::Invalid;
        }

        bool ok;
        double d = locale.toDouble(s, &ok);

        if (ok && d >= bottom() && d <= top()) {
            return QValidator::Acceptable;
        } else {
            return QValidator::Invalid;
        }
    }
};