How To Set And Get System Clipboard Contents In Java
Kushal Paudyal August 30th, 2010
The clipboard is a software facility that can be used for short-term data storage and/or data transfer between documents or applications, via copy and paste operations. It is most commonly a part of a GUI environment and is usually implemented as an anonymous, temporary block of memory that can be accessed from most or all programs within the environment via defined programming interfaces. A typical application accesses clipboard functionality by mapping user input (keybindings, menu selections, etc.) to these interfaces. [Wikipedia]
The following tutorial demonstrate how to read the content of a clipboard or set data in the clipboard.
package com.kushal.utils;
/**
* @Author Kushal Paudyal
* www.sanjaal.com/java
* Last Modfiied On 31st July 2009
*/
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import java.awt.datatransfer.DataFlavor;
import java.awt.datatransfer.StringSelection;
import java.awt.datatransfer.Transferable;
public class SystemClipboardDataManipulate {
/**
* When you do a cut or copy of text in the operating system, the text is
* stored in the clipboard.
*
* The following method returns the content that is currently in the
* clipboard.
*
*/
public static String getClipboardData() {
String clipboardText;
Transferable trans = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard()
.getContents(null);
try {
if (trans != null
&& trans.isDataFlavorSupported(DataFlavor.stringFlavor)) {
clipboardText = (String) trans
.getTransferData(DataFlavor.stringFlavor);
return clipboardText;
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return null;
}
/**
* This method will set any parameter string to the system's clipboard.
*/
public static void setClipboardData(String string) {
StringSelection stringSelection = new StringSelection(string);
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard().setContents(
stringSelection, null);
}
/**
* Testing the clipboard set and get methods.
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
/**
* If something is already there in the clipboard, printing the value.
*/
System.out.println(getClipboardData());
/**
* Setting our own clipboard data
*/
setClipboardData("Sanjaal.com/java");
/**
* Printing the Clipboard Data We Just Set.
*/
System.out.println(getClipboardData());
}
}
===========================
Here is the output (The first line depends on what is there in your system clipboard).
Most environments support a single clipboard transaction. Each cut or copy overwrites the previous contents.
Sanjaal.com/java
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Originally posted 2009-07-31 08:04:53.
