How to: Retrieve Text from the Clipboard (C++/CLI)

The following code example uses the GetDataObject member function to return a pointer to the IDataObject interface. This interface can then be queried for the format of the data and used to retrieve the actual data.

Example

// read_clipboard.cpp
// compile with: /clr
#using <system.dll>
#using <system.Drawing.dll>
#using <system.windows.forms.dll>

using namespace System;
using namespace System::Windows::Forms;

[STAThread] int main( )
{
   IDataObject^ data = Clipboard::GetDataObject( );

   if (data)
   {
      if (data->GetDataPresent(DataFormats::Text)) 
      {
         String^ text = static_cast<String^>
           (data->GetData(DataFormats::Text));
         Console::WriteLine(text); 
      }
      else
         Console::WriteLine("Nontext data is in the Clipboard.");
   }
   else 
   {
      Console::WriteLine("No data was found in the Clipboard.");
   }

   return 0;
}

See Also

Other Resources

Windows Operations (C++/CLI)

.NET Programming Guide