R function for reading and writing to windows/mac clipboard

clip_generic.md

intro

You can access clipboard in R but there are different implementations for windows, mac os and linux. This is a simple generic function that works both for windows and mac os. I plan to add linux support later.

details

For windows it just call utils::readClipboard(), utils::writeClipboard(). Since these functions return and take character vector, I have to make the mac os version with same type of return value and input parameter. One side effect is that when writing lines into clipboard, there will be extra new line at the end.

To read the clipboard, just run clip_read_lines(). To write to the clipobard, just run clip_write_lines(c("line 1", "line 2 \n and line 3")).

reference

• windows function help
• question about clipboard in mac os
• clipboard section in R help ?connections

clip_generic.R

#' Read windows/mac clipboard into lines
#'
#' If windows, call \code{utils::readClipboard()}. If mac os, use
#' \code{pipe("pbpaste")}.
#'
#' @return character vector
#' @export
#' @examples
#' clip_read_lines()
clip_read_lines <- function(){
  os <- Sys.info()[['sysname']]
  if (os == "Windows") {
    return(utils::readClipboard())
  } else if (os == "Darwin") {
    pb_read_lines <- function(){
      clip_r_mac <- pipe("pbpaste")
      lines <- readLines(clip_r_mac)
      close(clip_r_mac)
      return(lines)
    }
    return(pb_read_lines())
  }
}

#' Write lines into windows/mac clipboard
#'
#' If windows, call \code{utils::writeClipboard()}. If mac os, use
#' \code{pipe("pbcopy", "w")}.
#'
#' Note there could be an extra new line in the end for mac os version.
#'
#' @param lines character vector
#'
#' @export
#' @examples
#' clip_write_lines(c("line 1", "line 2 \n and line 3"))
clip_write_lines <- function(lines) {
  os <- Sys.info()[['sysname']]
  if (os == "Windows") {
    return(utils::writeClipboard(lines))
  } else if (os == "Darwin") {
    pb_write_lines <- function(lines){
      clip_w_mac <- pipe("pbcopy", "w")
      # if using write, will have extra new line in end
      cat(lines, file = clip_w_mac, sep = "\n")
      close(clip_w_mac)  # close to flush
    }
    return(pb_write_lines(lines))
  }
}