I'm trying to get the text stored in the clipboard by just using ctypes
in Python 3.6
. I tested a lot of solutions I found on Stack and GitHub, but they only work for Python 2
to Python 3.4
.
This is the code you'll find almost everywhere:
from ctypes import *
def get_clipboard_text():
text = ""
if windll.user32.OpenClipboard(c_int(0)):
h_clip_mem = windll.user32.GetClipboardData(1)
windll.kernel32.GlobalLock.restype = c_char_p
text = windll.kernel32.GlobalLock(c_int(h_clip_mem))
windll.kernel32.GlobalUnlock(c_int(h_clip_mem))
windll.user32.CloseClipboard()
return text
I tested it in Python 3.4
. It worked fine and returned the text in the clipboard. But running the same script on Python 3.6
always returns None
. I could not find a solution for Python 3.6
so far.
I'm wondering if anybody could help me out since I don't know much about ctypes
and C
programming at all.
My guess is you are using 64-bit Python 3.6 so handles are 64-bit, and you are passing them as c_int (32-bit).
With ctypes, it is best to be explicit about all the arguments and return types. the following code should work on 32- and 64-bit Python 2 and 3.
Also, CF_UNICODETEXT will be able to handle any text you copy.
from __future__ import print_function
import ctypes
import ctypes.wintypes as w
CF_UNICODETEXT = 13
u32 = ctypes.WinDLL('user32')
k32 = ctypes.WinDLL('kernel32')
OpenClipboard = u32.OpenClipboard
OpenClipboard.argtypes = w.HWND,
OpenClipboard.restype = w.BOOL
GetClipboardData = u32.GetClipboardData
GetClipboardData.argtypes = w.UINT,
GetClipboardData.restype = w.HANDLE
GlobalLock = k32.GlobalLock
GlobalLock.argtypes = w.HGLOBAL,
GlobalLock.restype = w.LPVOID
GlobalUnlock = k32.GlobalUnlock
GlobalUnlock.argtypes = w.HGLOBAL,
GlobalUnlock.restype = w.BOOL
CloseClipboard = u32.CloseClipboard
CloseClipboard.argtypes = None
CloseClipboard.restype = w.BOOL
def get_clipboard_text():
text = ""
if OpenClipboard(None):
h_clip_mem = GetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT)
text = ctypes.wstring_at(GlobalLock(h_clip_mem))
GlobalUnlock(h_clip_mem)
CloseClipboard()
return text
print(get_clipboard_text())