Copying text to clipboard using VBA - vba

Question

In MS Excel 2010 I am trying to copy some text to the clipboard using SendKeys. However, it does not work.
Is this some kind of security measure that Microsoft took in order to prevent people from creating fraudulent macros? Here's some code that shows what I'm trying to do (assume, that you're in the vba window and have some text selected):
Public Sub CopyToClipboardAndPrint()
Call SendKeys("^(C)", True)
Dim Clip As MSForms.DataObject
Set Clip = New MSForms.DataObject
Clip.GetFromClipboard
Debug.Print Clip.GetText
End Sub
Note that in order to use the MSForms.DataObject you'll have to reference %windir%\system32\FM20.DLL (i.e. Microsoft Forms 2.0 Object Library).
Edit:
The text I'm trying to copy is not in the document window, but in the immediate window of the vba project window! So Selection.Copy won't work here.

Answer 1

The following code uses the SendInput function from the Windows API to simulate the Control-C key combination, in order to copy the current text selection to the Clipboard.
The copy/print subroutine (the very last procedure in the code) calls two utility functions to trigger the necessary key presses and then uses the code you prepared to retrieve the text from the Clipboard.
I've tested the code in the Immediate window, the code editor pane, and the worksheet.
Option Explicit
'adapted from:
' http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/excel-questions/411552-sendinput-visual-basic-applications.html
Const VK_CONTROL = 17 'keycode for Control key
Const VK_C = 67 'keycode for "C"
Const KEYEVENTF_KEYUP = &H2
Const INPUT_KEYBOARD = 1
Private Type KEYBDINPUT
wVK As Integer
wScan As Integer
dwFlags As Long
time As Long
dwExtraInfo As Long
End Type
Private Type GENERALINPUT
dwType As Long
xi(0 To 23) As Byte
End Type
Private Declare Function SendInput Lib "user32.dll" _
(ByVal nInputs As Long, _
pInputs As GENERALINPUT, _
ByVal cbSize As Long) As Long
Private Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" _
Alias "RtlMoveMemory" _
(pDst As Any, _
pSrc As Any, _
ByVal ByteLen As Long)
Private Sub KeyDown(bKey As Byte)
Dim GInput(0 To 1) As GENERALINPUT
Dim KInput As KEYBDINPUT
KInput.wVK = bKey
KInput.dwFlags = 0
GInput(0).dwType = INPUT_KEYBOARD
CopyMemory GInput(0).xi(0), KInput, Len(KInput)
Call SendInput(1, GInput(0), Len(GInput(0)))
End Sub
Private Sub KeyUp(bKey As Byte)
Dim GInput(0 To 1) As GENERALINPUT
Dim KInput As KEYBDINPUT
KInput.wVK = bKey
KInput.dwFlags = KEYEVENTF_KEYUP
GInput(0).dwType = INPUT_KEYBOARD
CopyMemory GInput(0).xi(0), KInput, Len(KInput)
Call SendInput(1, GInput(0), Len(GInput(0)))
End Sub
Sub CopyToClipboardAndPrint()
Dim str As String
'Simulate control-C to copy selection to clipboard
KeyDown VK_CONTROL
KeyDown VK_C
KeyUp VK_C
KeyUp VK_CONTROL
DoEvents
Dim Clip As MSForms.DataObject
Set Clip = New MSForms.DataObject
Clip.GetFromClipboard
Debug.Print Clip.GetText
End Sub