Get text from the windows clipboard, or put text into clipboard from within batch files using sfk fromclip and toclip on the command line.
sfk toclip
copy stdin to clipboard as plain text.
type test.txt | sfk toclip
copies the content of ASCII file test.txt into clipboard.
sfk list | sfk toclip
copies a file listing of the current dir into clipboard.
sfk fromclip [-wait] [-clear]
dump plain text content from clipboard to terminal.
-wait : block until plain text is available.
-clear: empty the clipboard after reading it.
Example: turn backslashes into forward slashes.
Imagine you have the following text open within notepad:
foo/bar/systems/alpha1.cpp
foo/bar/systems/alpha2.cpp
foo/bar/systems/beta1.cpp
and for some reason you need the first line in a format like this:
foo\bar\systems\alpha1.cpp
then you may do it this way:
1. mark the first line using SHIFT + CURSOR keys.
2. press CTRL+C or CTRL+INSERT to copy it into clipboard
3. on the windows command line, run this command (e.g. from a batch):
sfk fromclip +filter -rep x/x\x +toclip
4. back in the editor, press CTRL+V or SHIFT+INSERT,
pasting the result from the clipboard.
As you see, the line changed into "foo\bar\systems\alpha1.cpp".
Example: reformat a spreadsheet line for further processing.
Imagine you have the following Excel file open:
and you need the data from line 3 as comma separated values.
Now, if you click left into line 3:
and press CTRL+C, the line is copied into clipboard, however as TAB-
separated data. (at least that's the behaviour seen with Excel.
Other packages like OpenOffice may behave different.)
So if you say on the command line:
sfk fromclip
what you get is
Foo Finance 4498542 1999 950 Dino
how do you turn this into comma-separated values?
we have 5 columns, therefore extend the above command like this
[type the following all in ONE line]:
sfk fromclip +filter -spat -sep "\t"
-form "$col1;$col2;$col3;$col4;$col5"
which will result in this output:
Foo Finance;4498542;1999;950;Dino
to make the data even safer for post-processing, we may surround
every value by quotes this way [type the following all in ONE line]:
sfk fromclip +filter -spat -sep "\t"
-form "\"$col1\";\"$col2\";\"$col3\";\"$col4\";\"$col5\""
this is hard to type, of course, but if you place it into a .bat
file, you only have to type it once. this results in:
"Foo Finance";"4498542";"1999";"950";"Dino"
As ever, the same result may be achieved in may ways.
For example, you may also save the whole spreadsheet data
as a comma-separated file, and then filter it by
sfk filter export.csv "-+Foo Finance"
which should produce the same line.
and you need the data from line 3 as comma separated values. Now, if you click left into line 3:
and press CTRL+C, the line is copied into clipboard, however as TAB- separated data. (at least that's the behaviour seen with Excel. Other packages like OpenOffice may behave different.) So if you say on the command line: sfk fromclip what you get is Foo Finance 4498542 1999 950 Dino how do you turn this into comma-separated values? we have 5 columns, therefore extend the above command like this [type the following all in ONE line]: sfk fromclip +filter -spat -sep "\t" -form "$col1;$col2;$col3;$col4;$col5" which will result in this output: Foo Finance;4498542;1999;950;Dino to make the data even safer for post-processing, we may surround every value by quotes this way [type the following all in ONE line]: sfk fromclip +filter -spat -sep "\t" -form "\"$col1\";\"$col2\";\"$col3\";\"$col4\";\"$col5\"" this is hard to type, of course, but if you place it into a .bat file, you only have to type it once. this results in: "Foo Finance";"4498542";"1999";"950";"Dino" As ever, the same result may be achieved in may ways. For example, you may also save the whole spreadsheet data as a comma-separated file, and then filter it by sfk filter export.csv "-+Foo Finance" which should produce the same line.