Content copied from Serial Monitor output is formatted text

[IvanchoIotata]

Describe the problem

It is common for Arduino sketches to output serial data to the computer in a delimiter-separated format (AKA "CSV"). This data is usually copied from the Arduino IDE Serial Monitor and then pasted into a spreadsheet program for further manipulation and analysis (e.g., generating charts).

🐛 Content copied from the Serial Monitor output field is stored in the clipboard as formatted text. This causes it to not be correctly recognized as delimiter-separated data when pasting it into a spreadsheet program.

To reproduce

1. Upload a sketch to your Arduino board that produces delimiter-separated output.
   ⓘ A demonstration sketch is provided here:
   Content copied from Serial Monitor output is formatted text #2093 (comment)
2. Open the Arduino IDE Serial Monitor.
3. Select the output in the Serial Monitor view.
4. Open a new spreadsheet in your spreadsheet application (e.g., OpenOffice/LibreOffice Calc, Microsoft Excel)
5. Paste the data from the clipboard to the spreadsheet.

🐛 The data is pasted in a single column:

Expected behavior

The format of the content copied from the Serial Monitor output field is in plain text format (i.e., CF_TEXT).

This will allow it to be recognized as delimiter-separated data when pasted into a spreadsheet application. The application will either automatically import the data into the appropriate spreadsheet columns, or else present an import dialog.

Arduino IDE version

8f8b46f

Operating system

Windows, Linux, macOS

Operating system version

This is universal behavior

Additional context

The fault does not occur when the Arduino IDE 1.x Serial Monitor is used.

---

The problem appears to be related to the Serial Monitor output being printed as HTML, which causes it to be copied to the clipboard as "HTML Format" (CF_HTML) data. More information:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/dataxchg/clipboard-formats

---

A tab character was arbitrarily chosen for the delimiter in the demo, but the fault also occurs with other delimiters (e.g., comma, semicolon, space).

Additional reports

• Content copied from Serial Monitor output is formatted text #2093 (comment)
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/copy-paste-data-from-the-serial-monitor/1041585/72
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/anybody-else-noticed-an-influx-of-code-formatted-as-individual-lines/1402400/22

Issue checklist

• I searched for previous reports in the issue tracker
• I verified the problem still occurs when using the latest nightly build
• My report contains all necessary details

[kittaakos]

Thanks for taking the time and reporting it to us, @IvanchoIotata.

In the context of this GitHub issue, I focus on the copy-pasting of the colon data.

Upload a sketch to your Arduino board that produces delimiter-separated output.

Please share a bare minimum sketch to produce the monitor output you mentioned, and I will check the problem. Thank you!

[IvanchoIotata]

Hello,
Thank you for the response.

Here is a simple code that illustrates the problem:

/*************************
 * Test copy a two column tab separated numbers
 * from serial monitor to clipboard and paste in Excel
 * On Arduino 1.8.19 works fine
 * On Arduino IDE 2.X.X the copied data pasted in only one column
 *************************/
void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  delay(500);
  for(int i = 0; i < 51; i++){
    Serial.print( i );
    Serial.print("\t");
    Serial.println( i * i );
  }
}
void loop() {}

[IvanchoIotata]

Here is the code in zip file:
SerialMonitoryCopyPasteTest.zip

[IvanchoIotata]

I have one more suggestion regarding Serial Monitor. To be placed on the side of the Arduino IDE window instead of the bottom. With modern day display there always more need for depth(height) than width. Also the data in the Serial monitor is rarely 10 spaces wide, but can be quite long. It makes sense to place the Serial monitor in a place that more data can be visible.

[Nick-Norton]

I have one more suggestion regarding Serial Monitor. To be placed on the side of the Arduino IDE window instead of the bottom.

Or have the ability to pop the Serial Monitor out, into its own Window. Like the Serial Plotter does.

[IvanchoIotata]

@per1234 Thank you for summarizing the problem in more concise manner.

[IvanchoIotata]

I want to check if there is any progress on this issue.