You need to build up a customized editor. In your editor, you can specify anything, just as you can do with html input.
The following code snippet may give you some sense

.
var lenLimitStringEditor = new function(){
var maxLenth = 10;
this.paint = function(grid,row,col){
var data = row.getCellValue(col);
var s = [];
s[s.length] = '<input type=text onblur="s_grid_cellBlur('
s[s.length]= grid.id+',this.parentNode,event);"'
s[s.length] ='" onkeydown="s_grid_cellFocusHandle('
s[s.length] = grid.id;
s[s.length] =',this.parentNode,event);" style="border-width:0px;height:19px;width:100%;" maxLength=';
s[s.length] =maxLenth+' />';
return s.join('');
}
}
var columns = [
{name:"name",caption:"Product",width:120,mode:"string",editor:lenLimitStringEditor}
];