android TextView arrays

Question

I am making a word game in which each a user has multiple guesses, each one made up of multiple TextViews. So far my code reads:

TextView[] guess1 = new TextView[numTextViews];
guess1[0] = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.Guess1_1);
guess1[1] = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.Guess1_2);
guess1[2] = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.Guess1_3);
guess1[3] = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.Guess1_4);
guess1[4] = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.Guess1_5);

with the xml looking like:

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/Guess1_1"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:layout_weight="1"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:text="@string/guessChar" />...

which repeats with android:id= changing.

I am going to be repeating myself if I type out TextView[] guess2 and all its elements.

What is a better way to go about this?
Would it be better to create all the TextViews programmatically as they are so similar?

What you have done seems fine to me. Using XML is better imo. — IAmGroot
– IAmGroot, Commented May 3, 2013 at 6:55

Voicu · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-03 16:21:20Z

3

This is how you can iterate through your views without the use of ids in repetitive code:

LinearLayout ll = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.layout_containing_textviews);
for (int i = 0; i < ll.getChildCount(); i++) {
    if (ll.getChildAt(i).getClass() == TextView.class) {
         guess1[i] = (TextView)ll.getChildAt(i);
    }
}

Make sure to tweak this in case you have non-TextView views since the i index will not be consecutive in that case. You can use another counter just for the TextViews.

Now if your layout has only TextViews, you don't even need an array. You can use that layout as a container/array the way it's used in the snipped above.

edited May 3, 2013 at 16:21

answered May 3, 2013 at 7:06

Voicu

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Comments

Elior · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-03 07:22:28Z

0

Do you know what is the amount of guesses for each text view?

I would suggest you to use reflection

Class clazz = R.id.class; // get the R class
Field f = clazz.getField("Guess1_" + "1");
int id = f.getInt(null);  // pass in null, since field is a static field.
TextView currcell = (TextView) findViewById(id);

in this case it will bring the Guess1_1

for you case:

 for (int i =0; i < numTextViews; i++)
 {
     Class clazz = R.id.class;
     Field f = clazz.getField("Guess1_" + Integer.toString(i+1));
     int id = f.getInt(null);
     guess[i] = (TextView)findViewById(id);
 }

but this only bring you the first array of Guess1 you need to convert it to generic code.. so some problems can be occur.. so read it with the xml as you have right now would be the easiest way..

Edit:

If the all textView have the same attributes you can also create it programmatically

LinearLayout view = new LinearLayout(this); // create new linear layout
view.setOrientation(LinearLayout.HORIZONTAL); // optional.. so the 
                                              // view will be horizontaly

view.setLayoutParams(new LayoutParams(LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
                         LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT)); // set the layout           
                                                                   // height and width

 for (int i = 0; i < numOf ; i ++)                                      
 {                       
     LinearLayout.LayoutParams lp = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(
               LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT, 
               LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);

     guess[i] = new TextView();
     guess[i].setLayoutParams(lp);
     guess[i].setID(i+1);
}

edited May 3, 2013 at 7:22

answered May 3, 2013 at 7:00

Elior

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6 Comments

njzk2 Over a year ago

rather than reflection, using Resources.getIdentifier is more readable

Elior Over a year ago

yeah I know, but its just a suggest.. :)

njzk2 Over a year ago

given the existence of the getIdentifier in resources, I fail to see why anyone would use reflection to find an id ?

Elior Over a year ago

@njzk2, I'm not going to argue with you.. I already told you that is just a suggestion.. the OP can choose any answer he want

njzk2 Over a year ago

i'm not trying to argue, I'd just like to know if there is a specific reason to use this method?

|

android developer · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-03 07:58:20Z

0

You could either create the textViews programmatically (and use inflate if you wish to use some xml too), or you could use the getIdentifier method , for example:

private static final String ID_FORMAT="Guess1_%d";
...
for(int i=0;i<10;++i)
  {
  String id=String.format(FORMAT,i);
  TextView tv = (TextView) findViewById(getResources().getIdentifier(id, "id", getPackageName()));
  //...
  }

same goes if you wish to do a loop within a loop.

If the layout has a lot of views, I would suggest using an adapterView (listView,gridView,...) instead, and avoid creation of so many views (either programmatically or by xml).

answered May 3, 2013 at 7:58

android developer

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