Pipe output to the clipboard using PowerShell - powershell

Question

EDIT: 23 Oct 2020
See postanote's answer.
EDIT: 14 May 2015
After 3 years, I thought I would share my ClipboardModule (I hope I am allowed to):
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
Function Get-Clipboard {
param([switch]$SplitLines)
$text = [Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::GetText();
if ($SplitLines) {
$xs = $text -split [Environment]::NewLine
if ($xs.Length -gt 1 -and -not($xs[-1])) {
$xs[0..($xs.Length - 2)]
} else {
$xs
}
} else {
$text
}
}
function Set-Clipboard {
$in = #($input)
$out =
if ($in.Length -eq 1 -and $in[0] -is [string]) { $in[0] }
else { $in | Out-String }
if ($out) {
[Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::SetText($out);
} else {
# input is nothing, therefore clear the clipboard
[Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::Clear();
}
}
function GetSet-Clipboard {
param([switch]$SplitLines, [Parameter(ValueFromPipeLine=$true)]$ObjectSet)
if ($input) {
$ObjectSet = $input;
}
if ($ObjectSet) {
$ObjectSet | Set-Clipboard
} else {
Get-Clipboard -SplitLines:$SplitLines
}
}
Set-Alias cb GetSet-Clipboard
Export-ModuleMember -Function *-* -Alias *
I usually use the cb alias (for GetSet-Clipboard) because it is two way i.e can get or set the clipboard:
cb # gets the contents of the clipboard
"john" | cb # sets the clipboard to "john"
cb -s # gets the clipboard and splits it into lines

Answer 1

If you have WMF 5.0, PowerShell contains two new cmdlets:
get-clipboard and set-clipboard

Answer 2

EDIT: Please look at question instead for solution.
Here is my solution:
Add-Type -AssemblyName 'System.Windows.Forms'
filter Set-Clipboard {
begin {
$cp = #()
}
process {
$_ | Tee-Object -Variable 'cp0'
$cp = $cp + #($cp0);
}
end {
$str = ($cp | Out-String).ToString();
[Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::Clear();
if ( ($str -ne $null) -and ($str -ne '') ) {
[Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::SetText( $str )
}
$cp = #()
}
}
This collects all the objects in an array, $cp. We use Tee-Object to redirect the current element, $_, to both the next process and to store it in the array, $cp. Lastly, once the process is finished we set the clipboard's text.
I have used it in the following way:
dir -Recurse | Set-Clipboard | Select 'Name'
And it seems to work.
To use a function instead:
function Set-Clipboard-Func {
$str = $input | Out-String
[Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::Clear();
if ( ($str -ne $null) -and ($str -ne '') ) {
[Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::SetText( $str )
}
}

Answer 3

Powershell version 6.1 removed this commandlet, so it is no longer built-in.
Instead, you need to install the ClipboardText package. In Powershell's console type:
Install-Module -Name ClipboardText
Then you can use:
Set-ClipboardText "hello clipboard"
Get-ClipboardText
Here is the github issue with the maintainers of Powershell redirecting you to use the ClipboardText package.

Answer 4

Native clip cmdlets in PSv7
$Host
# Results
<#
Name : ConsoleHost
Version : 7.0.3
InstanceId : 54be9bfd-799d-4213-a13a-22403c1d9ed8
UI : System.Management.Automation.Internal.Host.InternalHostUserInterface
CurrentCulture : en-US
CurrentUICulture : en-US
PrivateData : Microsoft.PowerShell.ConsoleHost+ConsoleColorProxy
DebuggerEnabled : True
IsRunspacePushed : False
Runspace : System.Management.Automation.Runspaces.LocalRunspace
#>
Get-Command -Name '*clip*'|Format-Table -a
# Results
<#
CommandType Name Version Source
----------- ---- ------- ------
Function Get-Clipboard 1.3.6 PowerShellCookbook
Function Set-Clipboard 1.3.6 PowerShellCookbook
Function Start-ClipboardHistoryViewer 0.0 ModuleLibrary
Cmdlet Get-Clipboard 7.0.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Management
Cmdlet Set-Clipboard 7.0.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Management
Cmdlet Set-UDClipboard 2.9.0 UniversalDashboard
Application clip.exe 10.0.19041.1 C:\WINDOWS\system32\clip.exe
Application ClipRenew.exe 10.0.19041.1 C:\WINDOWS\system32\ClipRenew.exe
Application ClipUp.exe 10.0.19041.488 C:\WINDOWS\system32\ClipUp.exe
Application rdpclip.exe 10.0.19041.423 C:\WINDOWS\system32\rdpclip.exe
#>

Answer 5

get-clipboard
skips newline characters when text is entered sequentially.
I use
[System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::GetText()
as before.

Answer 6

Now that Get-clipboard and Set-Clipboard are built in PSv7
You can have this function in your profile:
"C:\Users<USER_ID>\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShellISE_profile.ps1"
function To-Notepad {
param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipeline=$true)]
[object]
$InputObject
)
begin { $objs = #() }
process { $objs += $InputObject }
end {
$old = Get-clipboard # store current value
$objs | out-string -width 1000 | Set-Clipboard
& "notepad2" /c
sleep -mil 500
$old | Set-Clipboard # restore the original value
}
}
And then use in this way:
dir -Path C:\Temp | To-Notepad