How to: Store Multiple Data Formats in a Data Object

The following example shows how to use the SetData(String, Object) method to add data to a data object in multiple formats.

Example

Description

Code

DataObject dataObject = new DataObject();
string sourceData = "Some string data to store...";

// Encode the source string into Unicode byte arrays.
byte[] unicodeText = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(sourceData); // UTF-16
byte[] utf8Text = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(sourceData);
byte[] utf32Text = Encoding.UTF32.GetBytes(sourceData);

// The DataFormats class does not provide data format fields for denoting
// UTF-32 and UTF-8, which are seldom used in practice; the following strings
// will be used to identify these "custom" data formats.
string utf32DataFormat = "UTF-32";
string utf8DataFormat  = "UTF-8";

// Store the text in the data object, letting the data object choose
// the data format (which will be DataFormats.Text in this case).
dataObject.SetData(sourceData);
// Store the Unicode text in the data object.  Text data can be automatically
// converted to Unicode (UTF-16 / UCS-2) format on extraction from the data object;
// Therefore, explicitly converting the source text to Unicode is generally unnecessary, and
// is done here as an exercise only.
dataObject.SetData(DataFormats.UnicodeText, unicodeText);
// Store the UTF-8 text in the data object...
dataObject.SetData(utf8DataFormat, utf8Text);
// Store the UTF-32 text in the data object...
dataObject.SetData(utf32DataFormat, utf32Text);

Dim dataObject As New DataObject()
Dim sourceData As String = "Some string data to store..."

' Encode the source string into Unicode byte arrays.
Dim unicodeText() As Byte = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(sourceData) ' UTF-16
Dim utf8Text() As Byte = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(sourceData)
Dim utf32Text() As Byte = Encoding.UTF32.GetBytes(sourceData)

' The DataFormats class does not provide data format fields for denoting
' UTF-32 and UTF-8, which are seldom used in practice; the following strings 
' will be used to identify these "custom" data formats.
Dim utf32DataFormat As String = "UTF-32"
Dim utf8DataFormat As String = "UTF-8"

' Store the text in the data object, letting the data object choose
' the data format (which will be DataFormats.Text in this case).
dataObject.SetData(sourceData)
' Store the Unicode text in the data object.  Text data can be automatically
' converted to Unicode (UTF-16 / UCS-2) format on extraction from the data object; 
' Therefore, explicitly converting the source text to Unicode is generally unnecessary, and
' is done here as an exercise only.
dataObject.SetData(DataFormats.UnicodeText, unicodeText)
' Store the UTF-8 text in the data object...
dataObject.SetData(utf8DataFormat, utf8Text)
' Store the UTF-32 text in the data object...
dataObject.SetData(utf32DataFormat, utf32Text)

See also

• IDataObject
• Drag and Drop Overview