Quickly create a list of strings

Question

Consider the following example. You have a list of server names copied to the clipboard.

How would you quickly create a PowerShell variable containing the list of strings?

Now I know you just wrap the strings seen below in single quotes, but how could this be done programmatically?

Sample:

$list = @(
One
Two
Three
)

Going to +1 the answer by @AnsgarWiechers since that method works across PowerShell versions. Also a helpful answer, Powershell V5 can do gcb -> Get-Clipboard and there also is a Set-Clipboard. — user4317867
– user4317867, Commented Jan 11, 2016 at 1:02

Ansgar Wiechers · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-10 00:37:02Z

1

You could use the Clipboard class from the System.Windows.Forms namespace:

Add-Type -Assembly System.Windows.Forms | Out-Null

$clp = [Windows.Forms.Clipboard]::GetText() -split "`r`n"

The clipboard content is returned as a single string, so you need to split it at line breaks to get an array of lines.

Another option would be the InternetExplorer.Application COM object:

$ie = New-Object -COM 'InternetExplorer.Application'
$ie.Navigate("about:blank")
while ($ie.ReadyState -ne 4) { Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 100 }

$clp = $ie.Document.parentWindow.clipboardData.getData('text') -split "`r`n"

$ie.Quit()

However, for this to work you must put about:blank in a security zone where you allow programmatic clipboard access for scripts:

edited Jan 10, 2016 at 0:37

answered Jan 10, 2016 at 0:27

Ansgar Wiechers

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8 Comments

Ansgar Wiechers Over a year ago

@PetSerAl Thanks for the heads up. Fixed.

user4317867 Over a year ago

I think I have a faster method. Line 1 in ISE $list = @' then as many lines as you want. Last line is '@ Now $list contains the list of strings. For example, $list.ToUpper()

Ansgar Wiechers Over a year ago

@user4317867 How exactly would creating a multiline string fetch anything from the clipboard? Not to mention that a multiline string still is a single string, not a list of strings.

user4317867 Over a year ago

@AnsgarWiechers my fault, I was rushing. My aim was to paste multiple lines into the ISE and create a variable with those string. For example, paste into 1.txt then $var = Get-Content 1.txt followed by foreach($a in $var){"something on $a"}

Ansgar Wiechers Over a year ago

@user4317867 The code I posted already gives you what Get-Content would return without having to take the detour of writing it to a file first. Or did you mean you want a way to paste clipboard text as a variable defining a list of strings into the IDE? That would be an entirely different question than what you asked.

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