A very odd clipboard behaviour !

[Jaafar Tribak]

Try this code :

Option Explicit

#If Win64 Then
    Declare PtrSafe Function OpenClipboard Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As LongLong) As Long
    Declare PtrSafe Function CloseClipboard Lib "user32" () As Long
#Else
    Declare Function OpenClipboard Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
    Declare Function CloseClipboard Lib "user32" () As Long
#End If


Sub Test()
    Range("a1").Copy
    OpenClipboard 0
    Application.CutCopyMode = False
    CloseClipboard
End Sub

The above code simply copies Range("A1") to the clipboard and removes the copy marching ants.

Now, after having ran the above code, select another cell and try pasting the contents of the clipboard into it (Ctrl+V).... As I expected, the paste operation works fine and the active cell has now the same content and formats of range("A1") despite having turned CutCopyMode off.

Here is where it gets weird :
Try now changing the contents and\or formats of Range("A1") then perform a new Paste operation into another cell without prior copying . To my surprise, I found that the content of the clipboard has now also changed and contains the new contents and formats of Range("A1") without even doing a re-copy of Range("A") !! ... change the contents and\or formats of Range("A1") again, and the clipboard just changes automatically! This behaviour continues until a new copy operation takes place.

I use Office 2016. I don't know if this odd behaviour happens in other office versions.

I discovered this while trying to answer this post

 

[Yongle]

its the same behaviour on Excel365

 

[ISY]

its the same behaviour on Excel365 64 bit

Manipulating the clipboard using VBA

How to read or access the clipboard with Excel VBA? | Excel Help HQ

 

[Jaafar Tribak]

Yongle; ISY

Thank you both for testing and confirming my finding ... I am already thinking if and when this odd side-effect behaviour can be useful & come in handy

Regards.