replacing a text inside clipboard which contains html formatted string in C#

Question

What I want to do is to replace a part of the text inside the clipboard, but the problem is it is html formatted text and I am unable to modify its content using the below given code in C#. Any solutions?

Steps to replicate my doing:

1- copy an entry from cambridge advanced learner dictionary 4 to clipboard OR any other html formatted text to clipboard
2- Use these C# codes in a windows forms application to modify and replace text while keeping its html formatting:

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {

            string myStr = Clipboard.GetText(TextDataFormat.Html);
            myStr.Replace("Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary - 4th Edition", "******************************");
            Clipboard.SetText(myStr,TextDataFormat.Html);

        }

But it seems that it does not work at all!

NOTE: I want to keep the html formatting, I don't want to strip string from its html formatting.

I used Regex and it seems to work when I use:

myStr = Regex.Replace(myStr, "Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary - 4th Edition", "");

but when I want to use:

myStr = Regex.Replace(myStr, "Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary - 4th Edition<br /><br />", "");

it does not work! any solutions to remove those html tags:   ?

You can replace the content with regex – Sievajet Feb 10 '18 at 15:04 — Sievajet, Feb 10 '18 at 15:04

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 10 '18 at 15:18

1

Using Regex solved the problem to some extent like this:

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {

            string myStr = Clipboard.GetText(TextDataFormat.Html);
            myStr = Regex.Replace(myStr, "Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary - 4th Edition", "");

            Clipboard.SetText(myStr,TextDataFormat.Html);

        }

but still unable to remove HTML tags like   from clipboard.

answered Feb 10 '18 at 15:18

acman123

239
3
13

There nothing regex specific in this replace statement (it does not contain a regular expression). – Olivier Jacot-Descombes Feb 10 '18 at 15:27
using: myStr = Regex.Replace(myStr, "Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary - 4th Edition

", ""); – acman123 Feb 10 '18 at 15:37

Olivier Jacot-Descombes · Answer 2 · 2018-02-10T16:22:40.037

You must format the text in a special HTML Clipboard Format (link to description).

It looks like this (working example unlike the exmaple given in the link, which has wrong Start- and End- numbers):

Version:1.0
StartHTML:00085
EndHTML:00287
StartFragment:00105
EndFragment:00269
<!--StartFragment--><HTML><HEAD><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /><TITLE></TITLE></HEAD><BODY>YOUR <B>HTML FORMATTED</B> TEXT GOES HERE!</BODY></HTML><!--EndFragment-->

Also make sure to fill in the right Start- and End- numbers in the top section. More specifically, you must adapt EndHTML, EndFragment and EndSelection to reflect the change in the length of your text. Replacing alone won't work.

Code Maverick · Answer 3 · 2018-02-10T16:07:52.907

Since HTML input can be arbitrary, here are the steps I suggest:

Assuming you have a way to detect that the clipboard content is indeed in HTML, tidy it using a C# library of your choice (for example, this). This will allow the app to work with content which is "sanitized", i.e., HTML breaks such as   and   below will be tidied to standard   which you can then omit or replace.
Instead of using "one-off" RegEx replacement like the one you have for handing HTML breaks, try to make your code a bit more flexible by anticipating future additions to the list of offending HTML elements you need to replace, i.e., use groups (for example, this). You will then be able to provide the user of your forms app a way to configure which elements to omit.

replacing a text inside clipboard which contains html formatted string in C#

3 Answers3