Reading from the clipboard with Swift 3 on macOS

Question

I\'m a beginner with Swift, and I\'m trying to figure out how can I read what has been copied to the clipboard On macOS (Swift 3)? I\'ve searched a lot but can\'t seem to find a

Answer 1

Another Swift 4 Solution

// Write to pasteboard
let pasteboard = NSPasteboard.general
pasteboard.declareTypes([NSPasteboard.PasteboardType.string], owner: nil)
pasteboard.setString("Good Morning", forType: NSPasteboard.PasteboardType.string)

// Read from pasteboard
let read = pasteboard.pasteboardItems?.first?.string(forType: .string)

Answer 2

Another solution.

class ViewController : NSViewController {

  @IBAction func pasteMenuItemAction(_ sender: NSMenuItem) {
    let p = NSPasteboard.general
    let x = p.readObjects(forClasses: [NSString.self], options: nil)
    let s = x as! [NSString]
    if 0 < s.count {
      print(s[0])
    }
  }

}

That func pasteMenuItemAction() is bound to an Edit > Paste menu item.

I use writeObjects() for Edit > Copy. So it is natural for me to use its counterpart readObjects() here.

Confirmed with Xcode 9.2, Swift 4

Added:

One of the solutions for Edit > Copy:

  @IBAction func copyMenuItemAction(_ sender: NSMenuItem) {
    let t = "Hello!"
    let p = NSPasteboard.general
    p.clearContents()
    p.writeObjects([t as NSPasteboardWriting])
  }

That func copyMenuItemAction() is bound to an Edit > Copy menu item.

Answer 3

Easier ✅ Swift 4:

@IBAction func pasteAction(_ sender: Any) {
    guard let stringToPaste: String = UIPasteboard.general.items.last?.first?.value as? String else { return }
    MYTEXTVIEW.text = stringToPaste
}

Answer 4

Times have changed. In Swift 3+ you would do it like this: (if you are only interested in strings)

func clipboardContent() -> String?
{
    return NSPasteboard.general.pasteboardItems?.first?.string(forType: .string)
}

Answer 5

Works for Swift 3 and Swift 4

// Set string to clipboard
let pasteboard = NSPasteboard.general
pasteboard.declareTypes([NSPasteboard.PasteboardType.string], owner: nil)
pasteboard.setString("Good Morning", forType: NSPasteboard.PasteboardType.string)

var clipboardItems: [String] = []
for element in pasteboard.pasteboardItems! {
    if let str = element.string(forType: NSPasteboard.PasteboardType(rawValue: "public.utf8-plain-text")) {
        clipboardItems.append(str)
    }
}

// Access the item in the clipboard
let firstClipboardItem = clipboardItems[0] // Good Morning