👉 Overview
👀 What ?
UIPasteboard is a framework in iOS that provides a system-wide service for sharing data within and between applications. It is similar to the clipboard feature in many desktop operating systems.
🧐 Why ?
The UIPasteboard is an essential part of iOS, providing a fundamental service for data sharing. It enables seamless data transfer between applications, improving user experience and promoting interoperability. Understanding this feature is important for developers to build apps that can effectively share and handle data.
⛏️ How ?
UIPasteboard can be used in iOS development by using the 'general' class method to get the shared pasteboard object, onto which you can copy data. For instance, you can copy text to the pasteboard with 'UIPasteboard.general.string = \
⏳ When ?
UIPasteboard was introduced in iOS 3.0 and has been a core part of the iOS system ever since. It is used throughout iOS, in both system applications and third-party apps.
⚙️ Technical Explanations
The UIPasteboard class in iOS provides an interface for sharing data within an app and between different apps. It works by storing data in an invisible, system-wide storage area that any app can access. This data can be of various types, including but not limited to, strings, images, colors, and URLs. The data is stored in the pasteboard as an array of representations, with each representation being a dictionary that includes a data type and the data itself. The pasteboard also supports multiple items, each of which can have multiple representations. This design makes UIPasteboard flexible and powerful, allowing it to support a wide range of data sharing scenarios.