Cut/Copy/Paste in C#

[sudhivns]

Hi,

I wanted to implement cut/copy/paste operation in C# using ClipBoard class.
Eg: Wanted to store the Employee object during cut/copy and perform paste to show in UI.
anybody throw lights on how to store the customized class object using ClipBoard class.

Thanks,

[Plater]

You should look at the msdn doc's on it:

Try something like this:

Clipboard.SetData(DataFormats.Serializable,myClassInstance)
 

[sudhivns]

Thanks for the info.

I have tried using Clipboard.SetData using DataFormats.Serializable and added my own class(X) object. Ensured that my class X having all the members as Serializable attribute defined.
But the problem is when i use IDataObject GetData for DataFormats.Serializable returns null. IDataObject GetDataPresent() returns true indicating that info available.

Also I tried otherway:
Clipboard.SetDataObject(myDataObject) with my own DataFormats.
IDataObject GetData() returns null for my own Dataformats. however Clipboard.ContainsData(MydataFormat.Name) returns ture indicating the data present.

Any hint abt what is going wrong here

[Plater]

Shouldn't you be using Clipboard.GetData() to get your data back?

[sudhivns]

Clipboard.GetData() also returns NULL ( i have done casting for GetaData to my own object)

[Plater]

Ok, I managed to find an example and piece it together.

public static class Copying
{
    public static bool IsSerializable(object obj)
    {
      MemoryStream mem = new MemoryStream();
      BinaryFormatter bin = new BinaryFormatter();
      try
      {
      bin.Serialize(mem, obj);
      return true;
      }
      catch (Exception ex)
      {
      MessageBox.Show("Your object cannot be serialized." +" The reason is: " + ex.ToString());
      return false;
      }
    }
    public static void CopyToClipboard(object obj)
    {
      //register my custom data format with Windows
      //or get it if it's already registered
      DataFormats.Format format = DataFormats.GetFormat(obj.GetType().FullName);
 
      //now copy to clipboard
      IDataObject dataObj = new DataObject();
      dataObj.SetData(format.Name, false, obj);
      Clipboard.SetDataObject(dataObj, true);
 
      //that's it
    }
    public static object GetFromClipboard(Type T)
    {
      object doc = null;
      IDataObject dataObj = Clipboard.GetDataObject();
      string format = T.FullName;
 
      if (dataObj.GetDataPresent(format))
      {
      doc = dataObj.GetData(format);
 
      }
      return doc;
    }
}
 

I tested it with this object

[Serializable]
public class Document
{
   public int documentID = 0;
   public string documentDescription = "";
}
 

Then used this:

Document myobj = new Document();
myobj.documentDescription= "Fred";
myobj.documentID = 4;
bool canSet=Copying.IsSerializable(myobj);
if(canSet)
{
   Copying.CopyToClipboard(myobj);
   object b = Copying.GetFromClipboard(typeof(Document)); 
}
 

"b" was now the instance of the Document object with "fred" and 4 as it's memeber values.

[sudhivns]

Thank you very much for sample.
Object i'm setting to Clipboard is complex one.

It is throwing exception of kind "You must implement a default accessor on NameSpace.DataCollection because it inherits from ICollection."

This exception thrown when i was trying to cross check serialization works or not using

System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer x = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(Myobj.GetTy pe());

This throwed exception as above. So now i feel MyObj (internally having member to DataCollection class) having certain issues.

[Plater]

Here's the link to the example I used:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/cop...toclipbrd.aspx

Maybe you can pull more out of it.