how to copy content of the jtable to clipboard

When I needed to do this in the past I started with the code here: http://www.javaworld.com/javatips/jw-javatip77.html

And modified to create an action for a button that would copy the data and the column headings from a table to the clipboard.

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.datatransfer.Clipboard;
import java.awt.datatransfer.DataFlavor;
import java.awt.datatransfer.StringSelection;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.InputEvent;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import java.util.StringTokenizer;




/**
 * ExcelAdapter enables Copy-Paste Clipboard functionality on JTables. The clipboard data format used by the adapter is
 * compatible with the clipboard format used by Excel. This provides for clipboard interoperability between enabled
 * JTables and Excel.
 */
public class ExcelAdapter implements ActionListener {


    private String rowstring, value;
    private Clipboard clipboard;
    private StringSelection stsel;
    private JTable jTable1;


    /**
     * The Excel Adapter is constructed with a JTable on which it enables Copy-Paste and acts as a Clipboard listener.
     */
    public ExcelAdapter(JTable myJTable) {

        jTable1 = myJTable;
        final KeyStroke copy = KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_C, InputEvent.CTRL_MASK, false);
        // Identifying the copy KeyStroke user can modify this
        // to copy on some other Key combination.
        final KeyStroke paste = KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_V, InputEvent.CTRL_MASK, false);
        // Identifying the Paste KeyStroke user can modify this
        //to copy on some other Key combination.
        jTable1.registerKeyboardAction(this, "Copy", copy, JComponent.WHEN_FOCUSED);
        jTable1.registerKeyboardAction(this, "Paste", paste, JComponent.WHEN_FOCUSED);
        clipboard = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard();
    }


    /**
     * Public Accessor methods for the Table on which this adapter acts.
     */
    public JTable getJTable() {

        return jTable1;
    }


    public void setJTable(JTable jTable1) {

        this.jTable1 = jTable1;
    }


    /**
     * This method is activated on the Keystrokes we are listening to in this implementation. Here it listens for Copy
     * and Paste ActionCommands. Selections comprising non-adjacent cells result in invalid selection and then copy
     * action cannot be performed. Paste is done by aligning the upper left corner of the selection with the 1st element
     * in the current selection of the JTable.
     */
    @Override
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {

        final String actionCommand = e.getActionCommand();

        if (actionCommand.equals("Copy")) {

            StringBuilder sbf = new StringBuilder();
            // Check to ensure we have selected only a contiguous block of cells.
            final int numcols = jTable1.getSelectedColumnCount();
            final int numrows = jTable1.getSelectedRowCount();
            final int[] rowsselected = jTable1.getSelectedRows();
            final int[] colsselected = jTable1.getSelectedColumns();

            if (!((numrows - 1 == rowsselected[rowsselected.length - 1] - rowsselected[0] &&
                    numrows == rowsselected.length) &&
                    (numcols - 1 == colsselected[colsselected.length - 1] - colsselected[0] &&
                            numcols == colsselected.length))) {
                JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Invalid Copy Selection",
                                              "Invalid Copy Selection",
                                              JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
                return;
            }
            for (int i = 0; i < numrows; i++) {
                for (int j = 0; j < numcols; j++) {
                    sbf.append(jTable1.getValueAt(rowsselected[i], colsselected[j]));
                    if (j < numcols - 1) {
                        sbf.append('\t');
                    }
                }
                sbf.append('\n');
            }
            stsel = new StringSelection(sbf.toString());
            clipboard = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard();
            clipboard.setContents(stsel, stsel);

        } else if (actionCommand.equals("Paste")) {

            System.out.println("Trying to Paste");
            final int startRow = (jTable1.getSelectedRows())[0];
            final int startCol = (jTable1.getSelectedColumns())[0];
            try {
                final String trString = (String) (clipboard.getContents(this).getTransferData(DataFlavor.stringFlavor));
                System.out.println("String is:" + trString);
                final StringTokenizer st1 = new StringTokenizer(trString, "\n");
                for (int i = 0; st1.hasMoreTokens(); i++) {
                    rowstring = st1.nextToken();
                    StringTokenizer st2 = new StringTokenizer(rowstring, "\t");
                    for (int j = 0; st2.hasMoreTokens(); j++) {
                        value = (String) st2.nextToken();
                        if (startRow + i < jTable1.getRowCount() &&
                                startCol + j < jTable1.getColumnCount()) {
                            jTable1.setValueAt(value, startRow + i, startCol + j);
                        }
                        System.out.println("Putting " + value + "at row = " + startRow + i + " column = " + startCol + j);
                    }
                }
            } catch (Exception ex) {
                ex.printStackTrace();
            }

        }

    }

}

JTable already supports a copy Action. Action Map Action shows how you can easily use this Action with a JButton so you don't have to rewrite the code.


Here is a renewed version of ExcelAdapter from javaworld (from 1999). Link

For use:

jTable1.addKeyListener(new ClipboardKeyAdapter(jTable1));

ClipboardKeyAdapter.java

        public class ClipboardKeyAdapter extends KeyAdapter {

        private static final String LINE_BREAK = "\r"; 
        private static final String CELL_BREAK = "\t"; 
        private static final Clipboard CLIPBOARD = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard(); 

        private final JTable table; 

        public ClipboardKeyAdapter(JTable table) { 
                this.table = table; 
        } 

        @Override 
        public void keyReleased(KeyEvent event) { 
                if (event.isControlDown()) { 
                        if (event.getKeyCode()==KeyEvent.VK_C) { // Copy                        
                                cancelEditing(); 
                                copyToClipboard(false); 
                        } else if (event.getKeyCode()==KeyEvent.VK_X) { // Cut 
                                cancelEditing(); 
                                copyToClipboard(true); 
                        } else if (event.getKeyCode()==KeyEvent.VK_V) { // Paste 
                                cancelEditing(); 
                                pasteFromClipboard();           
                        } 
                } 
        } 

        private void copyToClipboard(boolean isCut) { 
                int numCols=table.getSelectedColumnCount(); 
                int numRows=table.getSelectedRowCount(); 
                int[] rowsSelected=table.getSelectedRows(); 
                int[] colsSelected=table.getSelectedColumns(); 
                if (numRows!=rowsSelected[rowsSelected.length-1]-rowsSelected[0]+1 || numRows!=rowsSelected.length || 
                                numCols!=colsSelected[colsSelected.length-1]-colsSelected[0]+1 || numCols!=colsSelected.length) {

                        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Invalid Copy Selection", "Invalid Copy Selection", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
                        return; 
                } 

                StringBuffer excelStr=new StringBuffer(); 
                for (int i=0; i<numRows; i++) { 
                        for (int j=0; j<numCols; j++) { 
                                excelStr.append(escape(table.getValueAt(rowsSelected[i], colsSelected[j]))); 
                                if (isCut) { 
                                        table.setValueAt(null, rowsSelected[i], colsSelected[j]); 
                                } 
                                if (j<numCols-1) { 
                                        excelStr.append(CELL_BREAK); 
                                } 
                        } 
                        excelStr.append(LINE_BREAK); 
                } 

                StringSelection sel  = new StringSelection(excelStr.toString()); 
                CLIPBOARD.setContents(sel, sel); 
        } 

        private void pasteFromClipboard() { 
                int startRow=table.getSelectedRows()[0]; 
                int startCol=table.getSelectedColumns()[0];

                String pasteString = ""; 
                try { 
                        pasteString = (String)(CLIPBOARD.getContents(this).getTransferData(DataFlavor.stringFlavor)); 
                } catch (Exception e) { 
                        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Invalid Paste Type", "Invalid Paste Type", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
                        return; 
                }

                String[] lines = pasteString.split(LINE_BREAK);

                for (int i=0 ; i<lines.length; i++) { 
                        String[] cells = lines[i].split(CELL_BREAK); 
                        for (int j=0 ; j<cells.length; j++) { 
                                if (table.getRowCount()>startRow+i && table.getColumnCount()>startCol+j) { 
                                        table.setValueAt(cells[j], startRow+i, startCol+j); 
                                } 
                        } 
                } 
        } 

        private void cancelEditing() { 
                if (table.getCellEditor() != null) { 
                        table.getCellEditor().cancelCellEditing(); 
            } 
        } 

        private String escape(Object cell) { 
                return cell.toString().replace(LINE_BREAK, " ").replace(CELL_BREAK, " "); 
        } 
}