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Determine every format available on the clipboard, including custom formats

Author:

Steve McMahon(steve@vbaccelerator.com)

Keywords:

API,Clipboard,Interprocess Comms

Updated:

01/08/98

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Whilst VB allows you to determine if the standard, recognised clipboard formats are on the clipboard, you can't determine if any other formats are present. So, for example, if you want to know if the clipboard contains data from Excel (which always pastes at least its own customised format called 'Wk1'), or if you want to determine whether Rich Text format is available to enable a Paste menu, you can't do it.

This tip shows how to determine all the formats currently available on the clipboard, including the customised formats.

Start a new project in VB. Add a Command button and a ListBox to the project's form, then add the following code:

Private Declare Function CountClipboardFormats Lib "USER32" () As Long
Private Declare Function EnumClipboardFormats Lib "USER32" (ByVal wFormat As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function OpenClipboard Lib "USER32" (ByVal hWnd As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function CloseClipboard Lib "USER32" () As Long
Private Declare Function GetClipboardFormatName Lib "USER32" Alias "GetClipboardFormatNameA" (ByVal wFormat As Long, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal nMaxCount As Long) As Long
Private Enum EPredefinedClipboardFormatConstants
    [_First] = 1
    CF_TEXT = 1
    CF_BITMAP = 2
    CF_METAFILEPICT = 3
    CF_SYLK = 4
    CF_DIF = 5
    CF_TIFF = 6
    CF_OEMTEXT = 7
    CF_DIB = 8
    CF_PALETTE = 9
    CF_PENDATA = 10
    CF_RIFF = 11
    CF_WAVE = 12
    CF_UNICODETEXT = 13
    CF_ENHMETAFILE = 14
    CF_HDROP = 15
    CF_LOCALE = 16
    CF_MAX = 17
    [_Last] = 17
End Enum


Private Property Get FormatName( _
        ByVal lFormatId As Long _
    ) As String
' Returns the format name for a clipboard format id:
Dim lSize As Long
Dim sBuf As String
Dim lR As Long
   
    If (lFormatId >= EPredefinedClipboardFormatConstants.[_First] And lFormatId <= EPredefinedClipboardFormatConstants.[_Last]) Then
       
' For pre-defined formats, we have to make the text
        ' up ourselves:
        Select Case lFormatId
        Case CF_TEXT
            FormatName = "Text"
        Case CF_BITMAP
            FormatName = "Bitmap Picture"
        Case CF_METAFILEPICT
            FormatName = "Meta-File Picture"
        Case CF_SYLK
            FormatName = "Microsoft Symbolic Link (SYLK) data."
        Case CF_DIF
           
FormatName = "Software Arts' Data Interchange information."
        Case CF_TIFF = 6
            FormatName = "Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) Picture"
        Case CF_OEMTEXT
            FormatName = "Text (OEM)"
        Case CF_DIB
            FormatName = "DIB Bitmap Picture"
        Case CF_PALETTE
            FormatName = "Colour Palette"
        Case CF_PENDATA
            FormatName = "Pen Data"
        Case CF_RIFF
            FormatName = "RIFF Audio data"
        Case CF_WAVE
            FormatName = "Wave File"
        Case CF_UNICODETEXT
            FormatName = "Text (Unicode)"
        Case CF_ENHMETAFILE
            FormatName = "Enhanced Meta-File Picture"
        Case CF_HDROP
            FormatName = "File List"
        Case CF_LOCALE
            FormatName = "Text Locale Identifier"
        End Select
    Else
       
' For custom formats, we can ask the Clipboard for
        ' the registered name:
        lSize = 255
        sBuf = String$(lSize, 0)
        lR = GetClipboardFormatName(lFormatId, sBuf, lSize)
        If (lR <> 0) Then
            FormatName = Left$(sBuf, lR)
        End If
    End If
End Property

Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim lR As Long
Dim iCount As Long
   
    List1.Clear

    If (OpenClipboard(Me.hWnd)) Then
        lR = EnumClipboardFormats(0)
        If (lR <> 0) Then
            Do
                iCount = iCount + 1
                List1.AddItem FormatName(lR)
                List1.ItemData(List1.NewIndex) = lR
                lR = EnumClipboardFormats(lR)
            Loop While lR <> 0
        End If
    End If
    CloseClipboard
   
End Sub

When you click the command button, the list box will be filled with a list of available data formats. The List field is set to the format name, and the item data of each item is set to the clipboard format's ID. To see custom formats in the list, try copying something from Word, Write or Internet Explorer before clicking the button.


 

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Copyright © 1998-1999, Steve McMahon ( steve@vbaccelerator.com). All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 01/08/98

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About  Contribute  Send Feedback  Privacy

Copyright © 1998-1999, Steve McMahon ( steve@vbaccelerator.com). All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 01/08/98