Straightforward COPY and PASTE functions

Allows very simple manual exchange with other applications through the clipboard.

Description

Matlab's CLIPBOARD command allows the user to import and export data to and from other applications. But this command it is limited to strings, or requires some mouse work when importing numerical arrays with the 'pastespecial' option.

This submission consists of two functions that make moving simple data from and to Matlab extremely easy. They are used as follows:

1) From Matlab to other application: In Matlab, say copy(x). Then in the other program (eg Excel, Word, Mathematica etc), import with the local Paste function. Depending on what kind of class x is, different material is pushed to the clipboard. For instance, if x is a numerical array, the receiving function will also see numerical data, not a string (as it would when using clipboard('copy',...)).

2) From another application to Matlab: In the other application, use the copy function to place content into the clipboard. Then, in Matlab, say x = paste; Depending of the structure of the data in the clipboard, the program makes x either a numerical array, a cell array, or a string.

See the help provided in the two functions for some examples. The two functions are limited to numerical arrays, cell arrays, and strings. They do not support structs or special classes.

Please comment if you like it or find it useful.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge the following in the creation of this submission:
num2clip: copy numerical arrays to clipboard

• MATLAB release: MATLAB 7.10 (2010a)

[Jonas Lundgren]

Very useful! Tank you.

[Riccardo Meldolesi]

Extremely useful. Well done

[Joseph Burgel]

Hi Yvan. Nice ftns. One thing I changed was to add special conditions for when a cell array has an 'empty' element. Rather that copying '[]', I test for empty and then simply add the tabs/CR. This way, Excel doesn't print anything for empties. Not sure if this will screw anything else up... In copy.m, line 51:

    % *** cell argument **************************************************
    elseif isa(x,'cell')
        [nrow, ncol] = size(x);
        str = '';
        for r = 1:nrow
            for c = 1:ncol-1
                if isempty(x{r,c}),
                    str = [str char(9)];
                else
                    str = onecell(str, x{r,c}, char(9)); % treat cell, append a tab
                end
            end
            if isempty(x{r,end}),
                str = [str char(10)];
            else
                str = onecell(str, x{r,end}, char(10));% treat cell, append a linefeed
            end
            clipboard('copy',str); % copy to clipboard
        end
Thanks,

[Yvan Lengwiler]

Thank you, Joseph. That's a valid point. I've addressed it (maybe slightly more elegantly) by catching this case in the 'onecell' subfunction.

function str = onecell(str,e,ch)
    if isempty(e)
        str = [str, ch];
    elseif isa(e,'char') etc...

Update should be available soon.

[Robert Alvarez]

After fighting with Matlab's clipboard() function for an hour, I found these functions. They do what they're supposed to, no fuss, no bother. Thanks.

[Yvan Lengwiler]

Robert, thank you for your comment. I'm glad that the functions are helpful.

[Stefano]

Thank you for these functions.
Very useful to overcome the limitations of the clipboard function.

[Joe]

 

[Joachim]