QClipboard

The QClipboard class provides access to the window system clipboard. More…

Inheritance diagram of PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard

Synopsis

Functions

Signals

Detailed Description

The clipboard offers a simple mechanism to copy and paste data between applications.

QClipboard supports the same data types that QDrag does, and uses similar mechanisms. For advanced clipboard usage read Drag and Drop .

There is a single QClipboard object in an application, accessible as clipboard() .

Example:

clipboard = QGuiApplication.clipboard()
originalText = clipboard.text()
...
clipboard.setText(newText)

QClipboard features some convenience functions to access common data types: setText() allows the exchange of Unicode text and setPixmap() and setImage() allows the exchange of QPixmaps and QImages between applications. The setMimeData() function is the ultimate in flexibility: it allows you to add any QMimeData into the clipboard. There are corresponding getters for each of these, e.g. text() , image() and pixmap() . You can clear the clipboard by calling clear() .

A typical example of the use of these functions follows:

def paste(self):
    clipboard = QGuiApplication.clipboard()
    mimeData = clipboard.mimeData()

    if mimeData.hasImage():
        setPixmap(mimeData.imageData())
    elif mimeData.hasHtml():
        setText(mimeData.html())
        setTextFormat(Qt.RichText)
    elif (mimeData.hasText():
        setText(mimeData.text())
        setTextFormat(Qt.PlainText)
    else:
        setText(tr("Cannot display data"))

Notes for X11 Users

  • The X11 Window System has the concept of a separate selection and clipboard. When text is selected, it is immediately available as the global mouse selection. The global mouse selection may later be copied to the clipboard. By convention, the middle mouse button is used to paste the global mouse selection.

  • X11 also has the concept of ownership; if you change the selection within a window, X11 will only notify the owner and the previous owner of the change, i.e. it will not notify all applications that the selection or clipboard data changed.

  • Lastly, the X11 clipboard is event driven, i.e. the clipboard will not function properly if the event loop is not running. Similarly, it is recommended that the contents of the clipboard are stored or retrieved in direct response to user-input events, e.g. mouse button or key presses and releases. You should not store or retrieve the clipboard contents in response to timer or non-user-input events.

  • Since there is no standard way to copy and paste files between applications on X11, various MIME types and conventions are currently in use. For instance, Nautilus expects files to be supplied with a x-special/gnome-copied-files MIME type with data beginning with the cut/copy action, a newline character, and the URL of the file.

Notes for macOS Users

macOS supports a separate find buffer that holds the current search string in Find operations. This find clipboard can be accessed by specifying the FindBuffer mode.

Notes for Windows and macOS Users

  • Windows and macOS do not support the global mouse selection; they only supports the global clipboard, i.e. they only add text to the clipboard when an explicit copy or cut is made.

  • Windows and macOS does not have the concept of ownership; the clipboard is a fully global resource so all applications are notified of changes.

Notes for Universal Windows Platform Users

  • The Universal Windows Platform only allows to query the clipboard in case the application is active and an application window has focus. Accessing the clipboard data when in background will fail due to access denial.

See also

QGuiApplication

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.Mode

This enum type is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used by mimeData() , setMimeData() and related functions.

Constant

Description

QClipboard.Clipboard

indicates that data should be stored and retrieved from the global clipboard.

QClipboard.Selection

indicates that data should be stored and retrieved from the global mouse selection. Support for Selection is provided only on systems with a global mouse selection (e.g. X11).

QClipboard.FindBuffer

indicates that data should be stored and retrieved from the Find buffer. This mode is used for holding search strings on macOS .

See also

supportsSelection()

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.changed(mode)
Parameters

mode – Mode

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.clear([mode=Clipboard])
Parameters

mode – Mode

Clear the clipboard contents.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is Clipboard , this function clears the global clipboard contents. If mode is Selection , this function clears the global mouse selection contents. If mode is FindBuffer , this function clears the search string buffer.

See also

Mode supportsSelection()

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.dataChanged()
PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.findBufferChanged()
PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.image([mode=Clipboard])
Parameters

mode – Mode

Return type

QImage

Returns the clipboard image, or returns a null image if the clipboard does not contain an image or if it contains an image in an unsupported image format.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is Clipboard , the image is retrieved from the global clipboard. If mode is Selection , the image is retrieved from the global mouse selection.

See also

setImage() pixmap() mimeData() isNull()

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.mimeData([mode=Clipboard])
Parameters

mode – Mode

Return type

QMimeData

Returns a pointer to a QMimeData representation of the current clipboard data (can be NULL if the given mode is not supported by the platform).

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is Clipboard , the data is retrieved from the global clipboard. If mode is Selection , the data is retrieved from the global mouse selection. If mode is FindBuffer , the data is retrieved from the search string buffer.

The text() , image() , and pixmap() functions are simpler wrappers for retrieving text, image, and pixmap data.

Note

The pointer returned might become invalidated when the contents of the clipboard changes; either by calling one of the setter functions or externally by the system clipboard changing.

See also

setMimeData()

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.ownsClipboard()
Return type

bool

Returns true if this clipboard object owns the clipboard data; otherwise returns false .

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.ownsFindBuffer()
Return type

bool

Returns true if this clipboard object owns the find buffer data; otherwise returns false .

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.ownsSelection()
Return type

bool

Returns true if this clipboard object owns the mouse selection data; otherwise returns false .

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.pixmap([mode=Clipboard])
Parameters

mode – Mode

Return type

QPixmap

Returns the clipboard pixmap, or null if the clipboard does not contain a pixmap. Note that this can lose information. For example, if the image is 24-bit and the display is 8-bit, the result is converted to 8 bits, and if the image has an alpha channel, the result just has a mask.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is Clipboard , the pixmap is retrieved from the global clipboard. If mode is Selection , the pixmap is retrieved from the global mouse selection.

See also

setPixmap() image() mimeData() convertFromImage()

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.selectionChanged()
PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.setImage(arg__1[, mode=Clipboard])
Parameters

Copies the image into the clipboard.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is Clipboard , the image is stored in the global clipboard. If mode is Selection , the data is stored in the global mouse selection.

This is shorthand for:

data = QMimeData()
data.setImageData(image)
clipboard.setMimeData(data, mode)

See also

image() setPixmap() setMimeData()

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.setMimeData(data[, mode=Clipboard])
Parameters

  • data – QMimeData

  • mode – Mode

Sets the clipboard data to src . Ownership of the data is transferred to the clipboard. If you want to remove the data either call clear() or call again with new data.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is Clipboard , the data is stored in the global clipboard. If mode is Selection , the data is stored in the global mouse selection. If mode is FindBuffer , the data is stored in the search string buffer.

The setText() , setImage() and setPixmap() functions are simpler wrappers for setting text, image and pixmap data respectively.

See also

mimeData()

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.setPixmap(arg__1[, mode=Clipboard])
Parameters

Copies pixmap into the clipboard. Note that this is slower than setImage() because it needs to convert the QPixmap to a QImage first.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is Clipboard , the pixmap is stored in the global clipboard. If mode is Selection , the pixmap is stored in the global mouse selection.

See also

pixmap() setImage() setMimeData()

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.setText(arg__1[, mode=Clipboard])
Parameters

  • arg__1 – unicode

  • mode – Mode

Copies text into the clipboard as plain text.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is Clipboard , the text is stored in the global clipboard. If mode is Selection , the text is stored in the global mouse selection. If mode is FindBuffer , the text is stored in the search string buffer.

See also

text() setMimeData()

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.supportsFindBuffer()
Return type

bool

Returns true if the clipboard supports a separate search buffer; otherwise returns false .

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.supportsSelection()
Return type

bool

Returns true if the clipboard supports mouse selection; otherwise returns false .

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.text([mode=Clipboard])
Parameters

mode – Mode

Return type

unicode

Returns the clipboard text as plain text, or an empty string if the clipboard does not contain any text.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is Clipboard , the text is retrieved from the global clipboard. If mode is Selection , the text is retrieved from the global mouse selection. If mode is FindBuffer , the text is retrieved from the search string buffer.

See also

setText() mimeData()

PySide2.QtGui.QClipboard.text(subtype[, mode=QClipboard.Clipboard])
Parameters

  • subtype – unicode

  • mode – Mode

Return type

(retval, subtype)

This is an overloaded function.

Returns the clipboard text in subtype subtype , or an empty string if the clipboard does not contain any text. If subtype is null, any subtype is acceptable, and subtype is set to the chosen subtype.

The mode argument is used to control which part of the system clipboard is used. If mode is Clipboard , the text is retrieved from the global clipboard. If mode is Selection , the text is retrieved from the global mouse selection.

Common values for subtype are “plain” and “html”.

Note that calling this function repeatedly, for instance from a key event handler, may be slow. In such cases, you should use the dataChanged() signal instead.

See also

setText() mimeData()