Set and Get Text in the Clipboard

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Introduction

In this article, I will explain how to manipulate text in the Clipboard. Here is how the main form in the sample application looks like:

Adding Controls

First of all, create a new project (Windows Forms Application) and add two Labels, then add a TextBox (textClip), and then another Label (labelClip) that will show what is in the Clipboard. Now, add a Timer (timerRefresh) that will refresh what is in the Clipboard to you automatically, and finally, add a Button (buttonSet).

The Code

First of all, define the interval of the Timer. In this article, I will use 5000ms (5 sec.) as interval. Now, let's get into the code!

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        PasteData();
    }

    private void SetToClipboard(object text)
    {
        System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard.SetDataObject(text);
    }

    private void PasteData()
    {
        IDataObject ClipData = System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard.GetDataObject();
        timerRefresh.Start();
        if (ClipData.GetDataPresent(DataFormats.Text))
        {
           string s = System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard.GetData(DataFormats.Text).ToString();
            labelClip.Text = s;
        }
    }

    private void buttonSet_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        SetToClipboard(textClip.Text);
    }

    private void timerRefresh_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        PasteData();
    }
}

Explanation

• PasteData(): In the PasteData, we have a IDataObject called ClipData that will store the Clipboard data object, then the Timer starts. The if clause will see if the Clipboard has something; if it has, it will store the data in a string(s), for use later to change the text of labelClip.
• timerRefresh_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e): In this function, every time the Timer reaches the interval time (5 sec.), it will execute PasteData.
• private void SetToClipboard(object text): Here, we will add a text that is in the object test to the Clipboard, using SetDataObject.
• private void buttonSet_Click(object sender, EventArgs e): When the user clicks in the buttonSet button, it will use SetToClipboard, using the text that is in testClip as the variable.

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)