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c#winformsclipboard

C# Backing Up And Restoring Clipboard

I have a program that uses clipboard but I want to restore the clipboard to its former state after I am done with it.

This is my code : 

IDataObject temp = Clipboard.GetDataObject();

//Some stuff that change Cliboard here
Clipboard.SetText("Hello");
//Some stuff that change Cliboard here

Clipboard.SetDataObject(temp);

But it if I copy a text, and run this code, I get nothing on notepad.

NOTE : I can't use Clipboard.Contains because I want to preserve the Clipboard EXACLY how it was before, even if the user copied a file.

Solution

  • I cannot confirm whether this will work, but I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to back up the data using the longer approach of actually reading the data and restoring it afterwards.

    Read here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.idataobject.aspx

    You would do something like (pseudo-code)

    //Backup
var lBackup = new Dictionary<string, object>();
var lDataObject = Clipboard.GetDataObject();
var lFormats = lDataObject.GetFormats(false);
foreach(var lFormat in lFormats)
{
  lBackup.Add(lFormat, lDataObject.GetData(lFormat, false));
}

//Set test data
Clipboard.SetText("asd");

//Would be interesting to check the contents of lDataObject here

//Restore data
foreach(var lFormat in lFormats)
{
  lDataObject.SetData(lBackup[lFormat]);
}
//This might be unnecessary
Clipboard.SetDataObject(lDataObject);