Selection & Clipboard#

#Selection model

rs-grid uses an anchor/focus selection model (like spreadsheets):

• Anchor — the cell where the selection started (click)
• Focus — the cell where the selection ends (shift-click or arrow keys)

The selected range is the rectangle between anchor and focus.

For details on the base selection model, see Selection.

#Copy

let output = state.apply(GridCommand::CopySelection);
if let CommandOutput::CopyText(tsv) = output {
    // Write `tsv` to the system clipboard
}

The selection is serialized as TSV (tab-separated values, RFC 4180):

• Columns separated by \t
• Rows separated by \n

#Copy with headers

Available as a built-in context menu action (BuiltinAction::CopyWithHeaders). Prepends a header row to the TSV output.

#Cut

let output = state.apply(GridCommand::CutSelection);

Same as copy, but also clears the selected cells. The clearing is recorded in the undo history.

#Clear (Delete/Backspace)

state.apply(GridCommand::ClearCells);

Clears the selected cells to an empty string, same as the clear step of CutSelection, but without touching the clipboard — pressing Delete or Backspace shouldn't overwrite what's on it. No-op without a selection, or on a full-column selection (same rationale as CutSelection: a header click carries positional intent, not "clear this entire column"). See Validation for how a required cell keeps its value instead of being cleared.

On success, the same success-flash mechanism as Paste below fires, scoped to exactly the cells CommandOutput::CellsCleared reports as cleared — not the whole selection, so a cell skipped for being locked or required doesn't get a misleading "success" flash.

#Paste

state.apply(GridCommand::PasteAt {
    text: "Alice\t30\nBob\t25".into(),
});

Pastes TSV text starting at the current selection anchor. Each tab-separated value is written to the corresponding cell. The paste is recorded as a batch undo entry.

On success, rs-grid-web triggers a brief golden-yellow flash (GridCanvas::flash_cells) on exactly the cells CommandOutput:: PasteApplied reports as written — not the whole target rectangle, so a cell skipped for being locked or failing validation doesn't get a misleading "success" flash. Clear reuses the same mechanism.

#Keyboard shortcuts

These are handled by the web layer (rs-grid-web) which listens to copy, cut, and paste DOM events.

#Error handling

pub enum CopyError {
    NoSelection,    // nothing selected
    TooManyRows,    // selection exceeds MAX_COPY_ROWS
}

If the selection is too large, CopySelection returns CommandOutput::CopyError(CopyError::TooManyRows) instead of the TSV text.

#Context menu

Right-click opens a context menu with clipboard actions. See Context Menu for customization options.