Android Clipboard with Examples

In android, Clipboard is a framework which is useful for copying and pasting the different types of data such as text strings, images, binary stream data and other complex data types.

Generally, the android Clipboard framework will store the simple text data directly in clipboard and the complex data is stored as a reference that the pasting application resolves with a content provider.

In android, the clipboard copying and pasting works within an application and between the applications that implement the framework.

To use android clipboard framework, we need to put the data into a clip object, and then put the clip object on the system-wide clipboard.

The clip object in android can take one of three forms to copy and paste data in android applications.

Clip Data Form	Description
Text	It’s a text string. We can put the string directly into the clip object, and then put the clip object on the clipboard. To paste the string, we can get the clip object from the clipboard and copy the string to into our application's storage.
URI	It represents any form of URI and it’s a primarily for copying the complex data from a content provider. To copy the data, we need to put an Uri object into a clip object, and then put the clip object onto the clipboard. To paste the data, we need to get the clip and Uri objects, resolve it to a data source such as a content provider, and copy the data from the source into our application's storage.
Intent	To copy data, we need to create an Intent object, put it into a clip object, and the put the clip object onto the clipboard. To paste the data, we need to get the clip object and then copy the Intent object into our application's memory area.

In android, the clipboard can hold only one clip object at a time. When an application puts a clip object on the clipboard, the previous clip object disappears.

To use clipboard in our applications, we need to create an instance of ClipboardManger class by calling getSystemService() method.

Following is the syntax of creating an instance of ClipboardManager by calling getSystemService() method.

ClipboardManager cbManager =  ClipboardManager)getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);

If you observe above code snippet, we created an instance of ClipboardManager by calling getSystemService() method.

Android Copying Data to Clipboard

As discussed, to copy the data to clipboard we need to create an instance of ClipData object by calling the respective type of data method of ClipData class. In case if it is text type, then newPlainText method will be called, and add the finished ClipData object to the ClipboardManager object using setPrimaryClip method.

Following is the code snippet of copying the text data to clipboard in android applications.

ClipboardManager clipboardManager;
ClipData clipData;

String txtcopy = "Welcome to tutlane";clipData = ClipData.newPlainText("text",txtcopy);clipboardManager.setPrimaryClip(clipData);

If you observe above code snippet, we copied text type of data to ClipData object and added ClipData object to the ClipboardManager object using setPrimaryClip method to copy the data to clipboard.

Android Pasting Data from Clipboard

As described previously, you paste data from the clipboard by getting the global clipboard object, getting the clip object, looking at its data, and if possible copying the data from the clip object to your own storage.

As discussed, to paste the data from clipboard we need to create an instance of ClipData object to get the clip data from ClipboardManager object using getPrimaryClip() method. If data available, get the data from clip data using ClipData.Item object. After that copy its text to your own storage using getText().

Following is the code snippet to pasting the data from clipboard in android applications.

ClipData pData = clipboardManager.getPrimaryClip();
ClipData.Item item = pData.getItemAt(0);
String txtpaste = item.getText().toString();

If you observe above code snippet, we are getting the clip data from ClipboardManager object using getPrimaryClip() method. After that, we are getting the data from ClipData object using ClipData.Item and getText() method.

Now we will see how to use clipboard for copying and pasting text type data in android application with examples.

Android Clipboard App Example

Following is the example of copying the text type data into clipboard from edittext on button click and pasting the clipboard data into another edittext control on button click in android application.

Create a new android application using android studio and give names as ClipboardExample. In case if you are not aware of creating an app in android studio check this article Android Hello World App.

Once we create an application, open activity_main.xml file from \res\layout folder path and write the code like as shown below.

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/fstTxt"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginLeft="100dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="150dp"
        android:text="Enter Text to Copy"
        />
    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/txtCopy"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginLeft="100dp"
        android:text="Welcome to Tutlane"
        android:ems="10">
    </EditText>
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/btnCopy"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginLeft="100dp"
        android:text="Copy Data to Clipboard" />
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/secTxt"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Show Copied Data"
        android:layout_marginLeft="100dp"
        />
    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/txtShow"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginLeft="100dp"
        android:ems="10" />
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/btnShow"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginLeft="100dp"
        android:text="Show Clipboard Data" />
</LinearLayout>

Now open your main activity file MainActivity.java from \java\com.tutlane.clipboardexample path and write the code like as shown below

MainActivity.java

package com.tutlane.clipboardexample;import android.content.ClipData;import android.content.ClipboardManager;import android.content.Context;import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;import android.os.Bundle;import android.view.View;import android.widget.Button;import android.widget.EditText;import android.widget.Toast;
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
    private EditText ctxt;
    private EditText ptxt;
    private Button btncpy;
    private Button btnpst;
    private ClipboardManager clipboardManager;
    private ClipData clipData;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        ctxt =(EditText)findViewById(R.id.txtCopy);
        ptxt = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.txtShow);
        btncpy = (Button)findViewById(R.id.btnCopy);
        btnpst = (Button)findViewById(R.id.btnShow);
        clipboardManager = (ClipboardManager)getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
        btncpy.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                String txtcopy = ctxt.getText().toString();
                clipData = ClipData.newPlainText("text",txtcopy);
                clipboardManager.setPrimaryClip(clipData);
                Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),"Data Copied to Clipboard", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            }
        });
        btnpst.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                ClipData pData = clipboardManager.getPrimaryClip();
                ClipData.Item item = pData.getItemAt(0);
                String txtpaste = item.getText().toString();
                ptxt.setText(txtpaste);
                Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),"Data Pasted from Clipboard",Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            }
        });
    }
}

If you observe above code snippet, we used ClipboardManager, ClipData, ClipData.Item objects to copy a data into clipboard and paste a data from clipboard based on our requirements.

Output of Android Clipboard App Example

When we run above program in android studio we will get the result like as shown below.

If we enter text in first edittext and click on Copy Data to Clipboard button, the text will be copied to clipboard and when we click on Show Clipboard Data, the clipboard data will be pasted into second edittext control.

This is how we can use clipboard framework in android applications to copy and paste the data based on our requirements.