Pipe output to the clipboard using PowerShell

Question

EDIT: 23 Oct 2020

See postanote's answer.

EDIT: 14 May 2015

After 3 years, I thought I would share my ClipboardModule (I hope I am allowed to):

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms  Function Get-Clipboard {     param([switch]$SplitLines)      $text = [Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::GetText();          if ($SplitLines) {         $xs = $text -split [Environment]::NewLine         if ($xs.Length -gt 1 -and -not($xs[-1])) {             $xs[0..($xs.Length - 2)]         } else {             $xs         }     } else {         $text     } }  function Set-Clipboard {     $in = @($input)      $out =          if ($in.Length -eq 1 -and $in[0] -is [string]) { $in[0] }         else { $in | Out-String }          if ($out) {         [Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::SetText($out);     } else {         # input is nothing, therefore clear the clipboard         [Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::Clear();     } }   function GetSet-Clipboard {     param([switch]$SplitLines, [Parameter(ValueFromPipeLine=$true)]$ObjectSet)      if ($input) {         $ObjectSet = $input;     }      if ($ObjectSet) {         $ObjectSet | Set-Clipboard     } else {         Get-Clipboard -SplitLines:$SplitLines     } }  Set-Alias cb GetSet-Clipboard  Export-ModuleMember -Function *-* -Alias * 

I usually use the cb alias (for GetSet-Clipboard) because it is two way i.e can get or set the clipboard:

cb                # gets the contents of the clipboard "john" | cb       # sets the clipboard to "john" cb -s             # gets the clipboard and splits it into lines 

Answer 1

If you have WMF 5.0, PowerShell contains two new cmdlets:

get-clipboard and set-clipboard

Answer 2

EDIT: Please look at question instead for solution.

Here is my solution:

Add-Type -AssemblyName 'System.Windows.Forms'  filter Set-Clipboard {     begin {         $cp = @()     }     process {         $_ | Tee-Object -Variable 'cp0'         $cp = $cp + @($cp0);     }     end {         $str = ($cp | Out-String).ToString();          [Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::Clear();          if ( ($str -ne $null) -and ($str -ne '') ) {             [Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::SetText( $str )         }          $cp = @()     } } 

This collects all the objects in an array, $cp. We use Tee-Object to redirect the current element, $_, to both the next process and to store it in the array, $cp. Lastly, once the process is finished we set the clipboard's text.

I have used it in the following way:

dir -Recurse | Set-Clipboard | Select 'Name' 

And it seems to work.

To use a function instead:

function Set-Clipboard-Func {     $str = $input | Out-String      [Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::Clear();      if ( ($str -ne $null) -and ($str -ne '') ) {         [Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::SetText( $str )     } }