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.