wx.Clipboard

A class for manipulating the clipboard.

To use the clipboard, you call member functions of the global TheClipboard object.

See the DataObject Overview for further information.

Call wx.Clipboard.Open to get ownership of the clipboard. If this operation returns True, you now own the clipboard. Call wx.Clipboard.SetData to put data on the clipboard, or wx.Clipboard.GetData to retrieve data from the clipboard. Call wx.Clipboard.Close to close the clipboard and relinquish ownership. You should keep the clipboard open only momentarily.

For example:

# Write some text to the clipboard
if wx.TheClipboard.Open():

    # This data objects are held by the clipboard,
    # so do not delete them in the app.
    wx.TheClipboard.SetData(wx.TextDataObject("Some text"))
    wx.TheClipboard.Close()

# Read some text
if wx.TheClipboard.Open():

    if wx.TheClipboard.IsSupported(wx.DF_TEXT):

        data = wx.TextDataObject()
        wx.TheClipboard.GetData(data)
        wx.MessageBox(data.GetText())

    wx.TheClipboard.Close()

See also

Drag and Drop Overview, DataObject Overview, wx.DataObject

Class Hierarchy

Inheritance diagram for class Clipboard:

Methods Summary

__init__	Default constructor.
AddData	Call this function to add the data object to the clipboard.
Clear	Clears the global clipboard object and the system’s clipboard if possible.
Close	Call this function to close the clipboard, having opened it with Open .
Flush	Flushes the clipboard: this means that the data which is currently on clipboard will stay available even after the application exits (possibly eating memory), otherwise the clipboard will be emptied on exit.
Get	Returns the global instance (wxTheClipboard) of the clipboard object.
GetData	Call this function to fill data with data on the clipboard, if available in the required format.
IsOpened	Returns True if the clipboard has been opened.
IsSupported	Returns True if there is data which matches the data format of the given data object currently available on the clipboard.
IsUsingPrimarySelection	Returns True if we are using the primary selection, False if clipboard one.
Open	Call this function to open the clipboard before calling SetData and GetData .
SetData	Call this function to set the data object to the clipboard.
UsePrimarySelection	On platforms supporting it (all X11-based ports), wx.Clipboard uses the CLIPBOARD X11 selection by default.

Class API

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class wx.Clipboard(Object)

Possible constructors:

Clipboard()

A class for manipulating the clipboard.

Methods

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__init__(self)

Default constructor.

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AddData(self, data)

Call this function to add the data object to the clipboard.

You may call this function repeatedly after having cleared the clipboard using Clear .

After this function has been called, the clipboard owns the data, so do not delete the data explicitly.

Parameters:data (wx.DataObject) – Return type:bool

See also

SetData

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Clear(self)

Clears the global clipboard object and the system’s clipboard if possible.

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Close(self)

Call this function to close the clipboard, having opened it with Open .

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Flush(self)

Flushes the clipboard: this means that the data which is currently on clipboard will stay available even after the application exits (possibly eating memory), otherwise the clipboard will be emptied on exit.

Currently this method is not implemented in X11-based ports, i.e. wxGTK, X11 and Motif and always returns False there.

Return type:bool Returns:False if the operation is unsuccessful for any reason.

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static Get()

Returns the global instance (wxTheClipboard) of the clipboard object.

Return type: wx.Clipboard

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GetData(self, data)

Call this function to fill data with data on the clipboard, if available in the required format.

Returns True on success.

Parameters:data (wx.DataObject) – Return type:bool

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IsOpened(self)

Returns True if the clipboard has been opened.

Return type:bool

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IsSupported(self, format)

Returns True if there is data which matches the data format of the given data object currently available on the clipboard.

Parameters:format (wx.DataFormat) – Return type:bool

Todo

The name of this function is misleading. This should be renamed to something that more accurately indicates what it does.

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IsUsingPrimarySelection(self)

Returns True if we are using the primary selection, False if clipboard one.

Return type:bool

See also

UsePrimarySelection

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Open(self)

Call this function to open the clipboard before calling SetData and GetData .

Call Close when you have finished with the clipboard. You should keep the clipboard open for only a very short time.

Return type:bool Returns:True on success. This should be tested (as in the sample shown above).

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SetData(self, data)

Call this function to set the data object to the clipboard.

This function will clear all previous contents in the clipboard, so calling it several times does not make any sense.

After this function has been called, the clipboard owns the data, so do not delete the data explicitly.

Parameters:data (wx.DataObject) – Return type:bool

See also

AddData

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UsePrimarySelection(self, primary=False)

On platforms supporting it (all X11-based ports), wx.Clipboard uses the CLIPBOARD X11 selection by default.

When this function is called with True, all subsequent clipboard operations will use PRIMARY selection until this function is called again with False.

On the other platforms, there is no PRIMARY selection and so all clipboard operations will fail. This allows to implement the standard X11 handling of the clipboard which consists in copying data to the CLIPBOARD selection only when the user explicitly requests it (i.e. by selecting the “Copy” menu command) but putting the currently selected text into the PRIMARY selection automatically, without overwriting the normal clipboard contents with the currently selected text on the other platforms.

Parameters:primary (bool) –