Clipboard(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Clipboard(3)

# [NAME](#NAME)

Tk::clipboard - Manipulate Tk clipboard

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

*$widget*->**clipboardOption**?(*args*)?

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

This command provides an interface to the Tk clipboard, which stores data for later retrieval using the selection mechanism. In order to copy data into the clipboard, **clipboardClear** must be called, followed by a sequence of one or more calls to **clipboardAppend**. To ensure that the clipboard is updated atomically, all appends should be completed before returning to the event loop.

The following methods are currently supported:

*$widget*->**clipboardClear**

Claims ownership of the clipboard on *$widget*'s display and removes any previous contents. Returns an empty string.

*$widget*->**clipboardAppend**(?**-format**=>*format*?,?**-type**=>*type*?,?**--**?,*data*)

Appends *data* to the clipboard on $widget's display in the form given by *type* with the representation given by *format* and claims ownership of the clipboard on $widget's display.

*Type* specifies the form in which the selection is to be returned (the desired \`\`target'' for conversion, in ICCCM terminology), and should be an atom name such as STRING or FILE\_NAME; see the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual for complete details. *Type* defaults to STRING.

The *format* argument specifies the representation that should be used to transmit the selection to the requester (the second column of Table 2 of the ICCCM), and defaults to STRING. If *format* is STRING, the selection is transmitted as 8-bit ASCII characters. See the Tk::Selection documentation for explanation of what happens if *format* is not STRING. Note that arguments passed to **clipboardAppend** are concatenated before conversion, so the caller must take care to ensure appropriate spacing across string boundaries. All items appended to the clipboard with the same *type* must have the same *format*.

A **--** argument may be specified to mark the end of options: the next argument will always be used as *data*. This feature may be convenient if, for example, *data* starts with a **-**.

*$widget*->**clipboardGet**( ?-type? );

Retrieve data from the clipboard on *widget*'s display. *-type* specifies the form in which the data is to be returned and should be an atom name such as STRING or FILE\_NAME. Type defaults to STRING. This command is equivalent to "SelectionGet( -selection => 'CLIPBOARD' )".

# [KEYWORDS](#KEYWORDS)

clear, format, clipboard, append, selection, type

2026-10-25 perl v5.44.0

---

Document: Tk::Clipboard(3pm) from perl-tk 804.036-r12 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/eserte/perl-tk