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I'm building an Android app and I want to copy the text value of an EditText widget. It's possible for the user to press Menu+A then Menu+C to copy the value, but how would I do this programatically?

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ClipboardManager. developer.android.com/reference/android/content/… – IAdapter Oct 26 '08 at 17:21
This is basically a duplicate question of: stackoverflow.com/a/13517876/2116185 – user2116185 Apr 10 at 13:19
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4 Answers

up vote 101 down vote accepted

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/ClipboardManager.html

Use ClipBoardManager's setText method:

 ClipboardManager clipboard = (ClipboardManager) getSystemService(CLIPBOARD_SERVICE); 
 ClipData clip = ClipData.newPlainText("label", "Text to copy");
 clipboard.setPrimaryClip(clip);
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4  
This method is deprecated already. – siik Sep 10 '11 at 8:48
3  
That version has been deprecated, but the version that replaces it has the exact same name and includes all the old functions (or at least the setText function,) though appears to allow for other objects rather than just text to be copied. See developer.android.com/reference/android/content/…. This means the above code is still valid. – joshhendo Oct 31 '11 at 9:24
I've edited the answer to include both the new process and the old deprecated one too. – Ashok Felix Jun 12 '12 at 20:52
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up vote 55 down vote

So everyone agree on how this should be done, but since no one want to give a complete solution, here goes:

int sdk = android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT;
if(sdk < android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB) {
    android.text.ClipboardManager clipboard = (android.text.ClipboardManager) getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
    clipboard.setText("text to clip");
} else {
    android.content.ClipboardManager clipboard = (android.content.ClipboardManager) getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE); 
    android.content.ClipData clip = android.content.ClipData.newPlainText("text label","text to clip");
    clipboard.setPrimaryClip(clip);
}

I assume you have something like following declared in manifest:

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="7" android:targetSdkVersion="14" />
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Thank you very much for this example! – lomza Jun 18 '12 at 11:36
It doens't work, because the compiler throws an error: Call requires API level 11 (current min is 7): android.content.ClipboardManager#setPrimaryClip line 245 Android Lint Problem. – JavaRunner Oct 11 '12 at 20:09
1  
Did you add target and min sdk to your manifest? If yes disable the lint warning. – Warpzit Oct 11 '12 at 21:02
Add following 3 lines above your method @SuppressLint({ "NewApi", "NewApi", "NewApi", "NewApi" }), @SuppressWarnings("deprecation"), @TargetApi(11).........That's what I did, and it works. – RRTW Jan 17 at 5:13
+1 For supporting older APIs. – squixy Jul 24 at 17:13
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up vote 7 down vote

Googling brings you to android.content.ClipboardManager and you could decide, as I did, that Clipboard is not available on API < 11, because the documentation page says "Since: API Level 11".

There are actually two classes, second one extending the first - android.text.ClipboardManager and android.content.ClipboardManager.

android.text.ClipboardManager is existing since API 1, but it works only with text content.

android.content.ClipboardManager is the preferred way to work with clipboard, but it's not available on API Level < 11 (Honeycomb).

To get any of them you need the following code:

ClipboardManager clipboard = (ClipboardManager) getSystemService(CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);

But for API < 11 you have to import android.content.ClipboardManager and for API >= 11 android.text.ClipboardManager

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up vote 3 down vote 
public void onClick (View v) 
{
    switch (v.getId())
    {
        case R.id.ButtonCopy:
            copyToClipBoard();
            break;
        case R.id.ButtonPaste:
            pasteFromClipBoard();
            break;
        default:
            Log.d(TAG, "OnClick: Unknown View Received!");
            break;
    }
}

// Copy EditCopy text to the ClipBoard
private void copyToClipBoard() 
{
    ClipboardManager ClipMan = (ClipboardManager) getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
    ClipMan.setText(editCopy.getText());
}

you can try this..

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4  
setText is deprecated. Use setPrimaryClip(ClipData) instead. – AD14 Jan 10 '12 at 5:29
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