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Excel 2013 64-bit VBA: Clipboard API doesn't work

I used to be able to use Windows API calls in Excel VBA to set text on the clipboard. But ever since upgrading to 64-bit Office 2013, I cannot. Below is some code that does not error, but it is also not setting any text on the clipboard. Can someone help me test and troubleshoot?

After pasting the code below into a code module in VBA, you can test it in the immediate windows by typing Clipboard_SetData("Copy this to the clipboard.") and it should set that text on the clipboard and you would be able to paste it into any other application.

(I am using Windows 8, so I cannot use Microsoft Forms or the Data Object to manipulate the clipboard. It does not work properly on Windows 8.)

UPDATE and EDIT: Code below has been corrected and now works properly in 64-bit Excel, thanks to Jason Kurtz' answer below. If you find this useful, please vote his answer up.

Option Explicit

'Found 64-bit API declarations here: http://spreadsheet1.com/uploads/3/0/6/6/3066620/win32api_ptrsafe.txt
Private Declare PtrSafe Function GlobalAlloc Lib "kernel32" (ByVal wFlags As Long, ByVal dwBytes As LongPtr) As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function GlobalFree Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As LongPtr) As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function GlobalLock Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As LongPtr) As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function GlobalSize Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As LongPtr) As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function GlobalUnlock Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hMem As LongPtr) As Long
Private Declare PtrSafe Function OpenClipboard Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As LongPtr) As Long
Private Declare PtrSafe Function CloseClipboard Lib "user32" () As Long
Private Declare PtrSafe Function EmptyClipboard Lib "user32" () As Long
Private Declare PtrSafe Function SetClipboardData Lib "user32" (ByVal wFormat As Long, ByVal hMem As LongPtr) As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function GetClipboardData Lib "user32" (ByVal wFormat As Long) As LongPtr
Private Declare PtrSafe Function lstrcpy Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpString1 As Any, ByVal lpString2 As Any) As LongPtr

Private Const GMEM_MOVEABLE = &H2
Private Const GMEM_ZEROINIT = &H40
Private Const GHND = (GMEM_MOVEABLE Or GMEM_ZEROINIT)

Public Const CF_TEXT = 1
Public Const MAXSIZE = 4096

Sub ClipBoard_SetData(MyString As String)
'32-bit code by Microsoft: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff192913.aspx
    Dim hGlobalMemory As LongPtr, lpGlobalMemory As LongPtr
    Dim hClipMemory As LongPtr, X As Long

    ' Allocate moveable global memory.
    hGlobalMemory = GlobalAlloc(GHND, Len(MyString) + 1)

    ' Lock the block to get a far pointer to this memory.
    lpGlobalMemory = GlobalLock(hGlobalMemory)

    ' Copy the string to this global memory.
    lpGlobalMemory = lstrcpy(lpGlobalMemory, MyString)

    ' Unlock the memory.
    If GlobalUnlock(hGlobalMemory) <> 0 Then
       MsgBox "Could not unlock memory location. Copy aborted."
       'Debug.Print "GlobalFree returned: " & CStr(GlobalFree(hGlobalMemory))
       GoTo OutOfHere
    End If

    ' Open the Clipboard to copy data to.
    If OpenClipboard(0&) = 0 Then
       MsgBox "Could not open the Clipboard. Copy aborted."
       Exit Sub
    End If

    ' Clear the Clipboard.
    X = EmptyClipboard()

    ' Copy the data to the Clipboard.
    hClipMemory = SetClipboardData(CF_TEXT, hGlobalMemory)

OutOfHere:
    If CloseClipboard() = 0 Then
       MsgBox "Could not close Clipboard."
    End If
End Sub
like image 426
Baodad Avatar asked Sep 07 '13 02:09

Baodad


1 Answers

OK, I got it now...

You need to change this line in your version of the code:

Private Declare PtrSafe Function lstrcpy Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpString1 As String, ByVal lpString2 As String) As LongPtr

To this:

Private Declare PtrSafe Function lstrcpy Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpString1 As Any, ByVal lpString2 As Any) As LongPtr

If you step through the code as you had it, you will see that the value of lpGlobalMemory changes when lstrcopy is called. When the types are changed to Any, the value stays the same.

Works for me on windows 7. Hope it works for you!

like image 91
Jason Kurtz Avatar answered Sep 17 '22 15:09

Jason Kurtz