Copying text to the clipboard using Java

Question

I want to copy text from a JTable's cell to the clipboard, making it available to be pasted into other programs such as Microsoft Word. I have the text from the JTable, but I am unsure how to copy it to the clipboard.

Answer 1

This works for me and is quite simple:

Import these:

import java.awt.datatransfer.StringSelection;
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import java.awt.datatransfer.Clipboard;

And then put this snippet of code wherever you'd like to alter the clipboard:

String myString = "This text will be copied into clipboard";
StringSelection stringSelection = new StringSelection(myString);
Clipboard clipboard = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard();
clipboard.setContents(stringSelection, null);

Answer 2

This is the accepted answer written in a decorative way:

Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit()
        .getSystemClipboard()
        .setContents(
                new StringSelection(txtMySQLScript.getText()),
                null
        );

Answer 3

The following class allows you to copy/paste a String to/from the clipboard.

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.datatransfer.Clipboard;
import java.awt.datatransfer.DataFlavor;
import java.awt.datatransfer.StringSelection;

import static java.awt.event.KeyEvent.*;
import static org.apache.commons.lang3.SystemUtils.IS_OS_MAC;

public class SystemClipboard
{
    public static void copy(String text)
    {
        Clipboard clipboard = getSystemClipboard();
        clipboard.setContents(new StringSelection(text), null);
    }

    public static void paste() throws AWTException
    {
        Robot robot = new Robot();

        int controlKey = IS_OS_MAC ? VK_META : VK_CONTROL;
        robot.keyPress(controlKey);
        robot.keyPress(VK_V);
        robot.keyRelease(controlKey);
        robot.keyRelease(VK_V);
    }

    public static String get() throws Exception
    {
        Clipboard systemClipboard = getSystemClipboard();
        DataFlavor dataFlavor = DataFlavor.stringFlavor;

        if (systemClipboard.isDataFlavorAvailable(dataFlavor))
        {
            Object text = systemClipboard.getData(dataFlavor);
            return (String) text;
        }

        return null;
    }

    private static Clipboard getSystemClipboard()
    {
        Toolkit defaultToolkit = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();
        return defaultToolkit.getSystemClipboard();
    }
}

Answer 4

For JavaFx based applications.

        //returns System Clipboard
        final Clipboard clipboard = Clipboard.getSystemClipboard();
        // ClipboardContent provides flexibility to store data in different formats
        final ClipboardContent content = new ClipboardContent();
        content.putString("Some text");
        content.putHtml("<b>Some</b> text");
        //this will be replaced by previous putString
        content.putString("Some different text");
        //set the content to clipboard
        clipboard.setContent(content);
       // validate before retrieving it
        if(clipboard.hasContent(DataFormat.HTML)){
            System.out.println(clipboard.getHtml());
        }
        if(clipboard.hasString()){
            System.out.println(clipboard.getString());
        }

ClipboardContent can save multiple data in several data formats like(html,url,plain text,image).

For more information see official documentation

Answer 5

I found a better way of doing it so you can get a input from a txtbox or have something be generated in that text box and be able to click a button to do it.!

import java.awt.datatransfer.*;
import java.awt.Toolkit;

private void /* Action performed when the copy to clipboard button is clicked */ {
    String ctc = txtCommand.getText().toString();
    StringSelection stringSelection = new StringSelection(ctc);
    Clipboard clpbrd = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard();
    clpbrd.setContents(stringSelection, null);
}

// txtCommand is the variable of a text box

Answer 6

For reference:

static void copyToClipboard(String text) {
    java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard()
        .setContents(new java.awt.datatransfer.StringSelection(text), null);
}

Answer 7

For reference here are the copy and paste functions from/to the system clipboard written in Clojure (so related to Java):

(defn copy [s]
  (-> (java.awt.Toolkit/getDefaultToolkit)
      .getSystemClipboard
      (.setContents (java.awt.datatransfer.StringSelection. s) nil)))

(defn paste []
  (-> (java.awt.Toolkit/getDefaultToolkit)
      .getSystemClipboard
      (.getContents nil)
      (.getTransferData java.awt.datatransfer.DataFlavor/stringFlavor)))

(copy "Hello!")
(paste) ;=> "Hello!"