Edit

Share via

Get-Clipboard

Module:
Microsoft.PowerShell.Management Module

Gets the contents of the clipboard.

Syntax

Default (Default) 

Get-Clipboard
    [-Raw]
    [-Delimiter <String[]>]
    [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Get-Clipboard cmdlet gets the contents of the clipboard as text. Multiple lines of text are returned as an array of strings similar to Get-Content.

Note

On Linux, this cmdlet requires the xclip utility to be in the path. On macOS, this cmdlet uses the pbpaste utility.

Examples

Example 1: Get the content of the clipboard

Set-Clipboard -Value 'hello world'
Get-Clipboard

hello world

Example 2: Get the content of the clipboard using a custom delimiter

This example gets the content of the clipboard. The content is a string containing the pipe character. Get-Clipboard splits the content at each occurrence of the specified delimiter.

Set-Clipboard -Value 'line1|line2|line3'
Get-Clipboard -Delimiter '|'

line1
line2
line3

Example 3: Get the content of the clipboard using custom delimiters

This example gets the content of the clipboard delimited by the line ending for both Windows and Linux.

Get-Clipboard -Delimiter "`r`n", "`n"

Parameters

-Delimiter

Specifies one or more delimiters to use when the clipboard content is returned as an array of strings. The command splits the contents of the clipboard at each occurrence of any of the specified delimiters. If not specified, the default delimiter is [Environment.NewLine].

  • On Windows, the default delimiter is "`r`n".
  • On Linux and macOS, the default delimiter is "`n".

Parameter properties

Type:

String[]

Default value:Platform specific newline
Supports wildcards:False
DontShow:False

Parameter sets

(All)
Position:Named
Mandatory:False
Value from pipeline:False
Value from pipeline by property name:False
Value from remaining arguments:False

-Raw

Gets the entire contents of the clipboard. Multiline text is returned as a single multiline string rather than an array of strings.

Parameter properties

Type:SwitchParameter
Default value:None
Supports wildcards:False
DontShow:False

Parameter sets

(All)
Position:Named
Mandatory:False
Value from pipeline:False
Value from pipeline by property name:False
Value from remaining arguments:False

CommonParameters

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -InformationAction, -InformationVariable, -OutBuffer, -OutVariable, -PipelineVariable, -ProgressAction, -Verbose, -WarningAction, and -WarningVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters.

Inputs

None

You can't pipe objects to this cmdlet.

Outputs

String

By default, this cmdlet returns the content as an array of strings, one per line. When you use the Raw parameter, it returns a single string containing every line in the file.

Notes

PowerShell includes the following aliases for Get-Clipboard:

  • All platforms:
    • gcb

Support for this cmdlet on macOS was added in the PowerShell 7.0.0 release.