Clipboard in JavaScript (ES5) Spreadsheet control

08 May 2023 / 5 minutes to read

The Spreadsheet provides support for the clipboard operations (cut, copy, and paste). Clipboard operations can be enabled or disabled by setting the enableClipboard property in Spreadsheet.

By default, the enableClipboard property is true.

Cut

It is used to cut the data from selected range of cells, rows or columns in a spreadsheet and make it available in the clipboard.

User Interface:

Cut can be done in one of the following ways.

Using Cut button in the Ribbon’s HOME tab to perform cut operation.
Using Cut option in the Context Menu.
Using Ctrl + X | Command + X keyboard shortcut.
Using the cut method.

Copy

It is used to copy the data from selected range of cells, rows or columns in a spreadsheet and make it available in the clipboard.

User Interface:

Copy can be done in one of the following ways.

Using Copy button in the Ribbon’s HOME tab to perform copy operation.
Using Copy option in the Context Menu.
Using Ctrl + C | Command + C keyboard shortcut.
Using the copy method.

Paste

It is used to paste the clipboard data to the selected range, rows or columns. You have the following options in Paste,

Paste Special - You can paste the values with formatting.
Paste - You can paste only the values without formatting.

It also performs for external clipboard operation. If you perform cut and paste, clipboard data will be cleared, whereas in copy and paste the clipboard contents will be maintained. If you perform paste inside the copied range, the clipboard data will be cleared.

User Interface:

Paste can be done in one of the following ways.

Using Paste button in the Ribbon’s HOME tab to perform paste operation.
Using Paste option in the Context Menu.
Using Ctrl + V | Command + V keyboard shortcut.
Using the paste method.

If you use the Keyboard shortcut key for cut (Ctrl + X) | copy (Ctrl + C) from other sources, you should use Ctrl + V shortcut while pasting into the spreadsheet.

Source

Preview

index.js

index.html

//Initialize action items.
let items = [
  {
    text: "Copy"
  },
  {
    text: "Cut"
  },
  {
    text: "Paste"
  }
];

// Initialize the DropDownButton component.
let drpDownBtn = new ej.splitbuttons.DropDownButton({
  items: items,
  cssClass: "e-round-corner",
  select: (args) => {
    if (args.item.text === 'Copy')
      spreadsheet.copy();
    if (args.item.text === 'Cut')
      spreadsheet.cut();
    if (args.item.text === 'Paste')
      spreadsheet.paste();
  }
});

// Render initialized DropDownButton.
drpDownBtn.appendTo("#element");


// Initialize the Spreadsheet component.

var columns = [
    {
        width: 130
    },
    {
        width: 92
    },
    {
        width: 96
    }
];

var spreadsheet = new ej.spreadsheet.Spreadsheet({
    sheets: [{ ranges: [{ dataSource: defaultData }], columns: columns }],
    enableClipboard: true
});


// Render initialized Spreadsheet.
spreadsheet.appendTo('#spreadsheet');

<!DOCTYPE html><html lang="en"><head>
            
        <title>EJ2 SpreadSheet</title>
        <meta charset="utf-8">
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
        <meta name="description" content="Typescript UI Controls">
        <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion">
        <link rel="shortcut icon" href="resources/favicon.ico">
        <link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-base/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-inputs/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-buttons/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-splitbuttons/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-lists/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-navigations/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-popups/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-dropdowns/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-grids/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-spreadsheet/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet">
        
        <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/core-js/2.4.1/shim.min.js"></script>
        <script src="system.config.js"></script>
        <script src="es5-datasource.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/dist/ej2.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="es5-datasource.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
        <!--Element which is going to render-->
        
        <button id="element">Clipboard</button>
       <div id="container">
       <div id="spreadsheet"></div>
       </div>


<script>
var ele = document.getElementById('container');
if(ele) {
    ele.style.visibility = "visible";
 }   
        </script>
<script src="index.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</body></html>

Prevent the paste functionality

The following example shows, how to prevent the paste action in spreadsheet. In actionBegin event, you can set cancel argument as false in paste request type.

Source

Preview

index.js

index.html

//Initialize action items.
let items = [
  {
    text: "Copy"
  },
  {
    text: "Cut"
  },
  {
    text: "Paste"
  }
];

// Initialize the DropDownButton component.
let drpDownBtn = new ej.splitbuttons.DropDownButton({
  items: items,
  cssClass: "e-round-corner",
  select: (args) => {
    if (args.item.text === 'Copy')
      spreadsheet.copy();
    if (args.item.text === 'Cut')
      spreadsheet.cut();
    if (args.item.text === 'Paste')
      spreadsheet.paste();
  }
});

// Render initialized DropDownButton.
drpDownBtn.appendTo("#element");


// Initialize the Spreadsheet component.

var columns = [
    {
        width: 130
    },
    {
        width: 92
    },
    {
        width: 96
    }
];

var spreadsheet = new ej.spreadsheet.Spreadsheet({
    sheets: [{ ranges: [{ dataSource: defaultData }], columns: columns }],
    enableClipboard: true
});


// Render initialized Spreadsheet.
spreadsheet.appendTo('#spreadsheet');

<!DOCTYPE html><html lang="en"><head>
            
        <title>EJ2 SpreadSheet</title>
        <meta charset="utf-8">
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
        <meta name="description" content="Typescript UI Controls">
        <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion">
        <link rel="shortcut icon" href="resources/favicon.ico">
        <link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-base/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-inputs/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-buttons/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-splitbuttons/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-lists/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-navigations/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-popups/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-dropdowns/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-grids/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="//cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/ej2-spreadsheet/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet">
        <link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet">
        
        <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/core-js/2.4.1/shim.min.js"></script>
        <script src="system.config.js"></script>
        <script src="es5-datasource.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/21.2.3/dist/ej2.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="es5-datasource.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
        <!--Element which is going to render-->
        
        <button id="element">Clipboard</button>
       <div id="container">
       <div id="spreadsheet"></div>
       </div>


<script>
var ele = document.getElementById('container');
if(ele) {
    ele.style.visibility = "visible";
 }   
        </script>
<script src="index.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</body></html>

Limitations

External clipboard is not fully supported while copying data from another source and pasting into a spreadsheet, it only works with basic supports (Values, Number, cell, and Text formatting).
If you copy =SUM(A2,B2) and paste, the formula reference will change depending on the pasted cell address but we don’t have support for nested formula(formula reference will be same).
Clipboard is not supported with conditional formatting (values only pasting).
We have limitation while copying the whole sheet data and pasting it into another sheet.

Contents

Cut
Copy
Paste
Prevent the paste functionality
Limitations

Contents

Cut
Copy
Paste
Prevent the paste functionality
Limitations

Please provide additional information

Thank you for your feedback and comments.We will rectify this as soon as possible!