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POHow to paste CSV data to Windows Clipboard with C#
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  1. POHow to paste CSV data to Windows Clipboard with C#
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    copied!<h2>What I'm trying to accomplish</h2> <ul> <li>My app generates some tabular data</li> <li>I want the user to be able to launch Excel and click "paste" to place the data as cells in Excel</li> <li>Windows accepts a format called "CommaSeparatedValue" that is used with it's APIs so this seems possible</li> <li>Putting raw text on the clipboard works, but trying to use this format does not</li> <li>NOTE: I can correctly retrieve CSV data from the clipboard, my problem is about pasting CSV data to the clipboard.</li> </ul> <h2>What I have tried that isn't working</h2> <p>Clipboard.SetText()</p> <pre><code>System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard.SetText( "1,2,3,4\n5,6,7,8", System.Windows.Forms.TextDataFormat.CommaSeparatedValue ); </code></pre> <p>Clipboard.SetData()</p> <pre><code>System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard.SetData( System.Windows.Forms.DataFormats.CommaSeparatedValue, "1,2,3,4\n5,6,7,8", ); </code></pre> <p>In both cases something is placed on the clipboard, but when pasted into Excel it shows up as one cell of garbarge text: "–§žý;pC¦yVk²ˆû"</p> <h2>Update 1: Workaround using SetText()</h2> <p>As BFree's answer shows <strong>SetText</strong> with <strong>TextDataFormat</strong> serves as a workaround</p> <pre><code>System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard.SetText( "1\t2\t3\t4\n5\t6\t7\t8", System.Windows.Forms.TextDataFormat.Text ); </code></pre> <p>I have tried this and confirm that now pasting into Excel and Word works correctly. In each case it pastes as a table with cells instead of plaintext.</p> <p>Still curious why CommaSeparatedValue is <em>not</em> working.</p>
 

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