VB.NET Language in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Name

IDataObject.GetData Method

Class

System.Windows.Forms.IDataObject

Syntax

GetData(format [,autoconvert])

format (required; String or Type object)

Field member of the DataFormats class (see later for more information on this) or a Type object representing the format of the data

autoconvert (optional; Boolean)

True to convert the data to the specified format

Return value

An Object that contains Clipboard data in the specified format

Description

Retrieves the data of the given format, optionally converting the data format

Rules at a Glance

• The format argument can be one of the following string values:

  DataFormats.Bitmap

  DataFormats.CommaSeparatedValue

  DataFormats.Dib

  DataFormats.Dif

  DataFormats.EnhancedMetafile

  DataFormats.FileDrop

  DataFormats.Html

  DataFormats.Locale

  DataFormats.MetafilePict

  DataFormats.OemText

  DataFormats.Palette

  DataFormats.PenData

  DataFormats.Riff

  DataFormats.Rtf

  DataFormats.Serializable (a format that encapsulates any type of Windows Forms object)

  DataFormats.StringFormat

  DataFormats.SymbolicLink

  DataFormats.Text

  DataFormats.Tiff

  DataFormats.UnicodeText

  DataFormats.WaveAudio

• If format is a string, the autoconvert argument can be supplied in the method call.

• If the GetData method cannot find data in format, it attempts to convert the data to format. If the data cannot be converted to the format, or if the data was stored with autoconvert set to False, the method returns Nothing.

Example

The following example extracts the text that is currently on the Clipboard:

' Declare ...