Get data from then back to Windows Clipboard

Question

I would like to get the data currently stored in the Windows Clipboard and save it in a variable, then put the data back into the clipboard.

Right now I'm using this code:

object l_oClipBrdData = Clipboard.GetDataObject();
Clipboard.SetDataObject(l_oClipBrdData ,true);

But after doing that the clipboard is empty.

What am I doing wrong?

Solution 1

Here is an example to demonstrate the 'Clipboard' object:

string text;
string[] a;

if (Clipboard.ContainsText())
   {
      text = Clipboard.GetText(TextDataFormat.Text);

      //  the following could have been done simpler with
      //  a Regex, but the regular expression would be not
      //  exactly simple

      if (text.Length > 1)
          {
              //  unify all line breaks to \r
              text = text.Replace("\r\n", "\r").Replace("\n", "\r");

              //  create an array of lines
              a = text.Split('\r');

              //  join all trimmed lines with a space as separator
              text = "";

              //  can't use string.Join() with a Trim() of all fragments
              foreach (string t in a)
              {
                  if (text.Length > 0)
                      text += " ";
                  text += t.Trim();
              }

            Clipboard.SetDataObject(text, true);
          }
    }

Solution 2

Clipboard.GetDataObject() will return the IDataObject from the clipboard, if you want to get the actual data you can call GetData(typeof(dataType))

Example:

        int mydata = 100;

        Clipboard.SetDataObject(mydata, true);

        var clipData = Clipboard.GetDataObject().GetData(typeof(int)); 

There are also a lot of predifined dataTypes you can use

Example:

        if (Clipboard.ContainsData(DataFormats.Bitmap))
        {
            var clipData = Clipboard.GetData(DataFormats.Bitmap);
        }

Solution 3

Object that you pass to SetDataObject() should support serialization. If this is your own type, mark it with [Serializable] attribute.

More info:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cs5ebdfz(v=vs.90).aspx

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/8102/Saving-and-obtaining-custom-objects-to-from-Window

Comments

[Leon Newswanger]

Are you getting any exceptions?

[David Heffernan]

What is on the clipboard when this code runs? Also, why are you using object? It's IDataObject.

[Andrew]

msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/… msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/… msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb292287.aspx

[David Heffernan]

The object is pulled off the clipboard.

[David Heffernan]

Why are you concentrating on text. Question seems general. Why does the code in the Q not behave as the asker expects? If you are putting text on the clipboard, use SetText.

[user1472066]

There are no exceptions and its not my object, its an object that is already in the clipboard. it could be anything text, a printscreen a file or anything else.. I changed it to IdataObject - still doesn't work

[Axel Kemper]

The example was meant to demonstrate the steps: 1.) make sure that the Clipboard contains data of the type you expect/want 2.) copy the data 3.) process the data 4.) Write it back. For its own sake, the sample is useful. I call it several times a day via taskbar shortcut to convert texts with linebreaks to strings suitable as filenames.

[user1472066]

I succeeded doing so with text.. but that is not enough. What I want to do is create a clipboard that can store more that 1 item so I could copy and paste things as I please without overriding the copied data everytime I press CTRL+C. the code works perfectly if I'm using setText and getText.. but I want it to be able to work for everything that may be stored in the clipboard. so I want to take whatever is in the clipboard, store it, and then put it back exactly the way it was

[Axel Kemper]

Another Clipboard manager (in C#) was proposed in Codeproject a while back: codeproject.com/Articles/18568/…

[IS4]

There is no Flush in Clipboard.