Copy from clipboard using Python and Tkinter

Question

I'm trying to take a string from the Windows clipboard and paste it into a listbox in a Tkinter GUI. It works great until trying to copy a image.

clipboardData = root.selection_get(selection="CLIPBOARD")
listbox.insert(0, clipboardData)

I have tried to use Tkinter, pyperclip and clipboard. How can I avoid non-text content?

At the simplest, why not `try:` the `listbox.insert` and handle any error with `except WhateverError:`? See e.g. https://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/errors.html#handling-exceptions — jonrsharpe, Feb 03 '15 at 13:54
try: clipboardData = clipboard.get() # root.selection_get(selection="CLIPBOARD") except: print "Can't copy images" still crashes... — snir.tur, Feb 03 '15 at 14:00
my mistake! the try-except solution works! there is another solution? — snir.tur, Feb 03 '15 at 14:07

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 23 '15 at 11:39

Using Tkinter, I would use a try..except block to insert the clipboard data where it exists and ignore it where it doesn't (or, optionally, add some default value). This doesn't specifically revoke any image-type clipboard contents, but it will reject anything that isn't in myTkObject.clipboard_get()'s expected format. That's a string by default, though you can change it with the function's type keyword argument.

Here's an example that builds on Nodak and jonrsharpe's answer and comments:

from Tkinter import Tk
myTkObject = Tk()
try:
    listbox.insert(0, myTkObject.clipboard_get())
except Tkinter.TclError:
    pass  # Instead of do-nothing, you can insert some default value if you like.

Copy from clipboard using Python and Tkinter

1 Answers1