Style text of parameter in getString(int resId, Object... formatArgs) method

Question

I have two String resources as such:

<string name="give_us_feedback">Give us feedback at %1$s if you want to make the app even better!</string>  
<string name="email">[email protected]</string>

I'd like to style the email part to be blue and underlined to indicate that the user can click on it (the whole TextView, not just the email text). I know to use SpannableString to color text, but it doesn't seem to work when I'm combining two strings via getString(int resId, Object... formatArgs), presumably because getString() will perform a cast or a .toString() on the Object being sent. Here's what doesn't work:

TextView emailTV = new TextView(this);
SpannableString email = new SpannableString(getString(R.string.email));
email.setSpan(new UnderlineSpan(), 0, email.length() - 1, 0);
email.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(Color.BLUE), 0, email.length() - 1, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
String feedback = getString(R.string.give_us_feedback, email);
emailTV.setText(feedback);

Any ideas?

S Fitz · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-15 10:08:00Z

12

It's a bit tricky. Converting back to charsequence (String feedback = getString(R.string.give_us_feedback, email);) makes disappear the Spannable. Try this way (you want to check for the correct indexes in your string)

String emailString = getString(R.string.email);
String feedback = getString(R.string.give_us_feedback, emailString);
SpannableString email = new SpannableString(feedback);
int startIndex = feedBack.indexOf(emailString);
int endIndex = startIndex + emailString.length();
email.setSpan(new UnderlineSpan(), startIndex, endIndex, 0);
email.setSpan(new ForegroundColorSpan(Color.BLUE), startIndex, endIndex, Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE);
emailTV.setText(email);

edited May 15, 2014 at 10:08

S Fitz

1,09415 silver badges31 bronze badges

answered May 15, 2014 at 9:52

Blackbelt

158k31 gold badges308 silver badges310 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Donny Rozendal · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-03 21:37:38Z

Above answers don't work if your string already contains the same text as the argument.

So this is what I do (in Kotlin). I get the start index of the argument by searching for the literal argument text in the string resource. This is with using a regex.

val text = getString(R.string.id)
val textWithArgs = getString(R.string.id, argument)

// Searches for the start index of %1$s
val startIndex = """%1${"\\$"}s""".toRegex().find(text)?.range?.start
val endIndex = startIndex?.plus(argument.length)

val styledText = if (startIndex == null || endIndex == null) {
    textWithArgs
} else {
    SpannableString(textWithArgs).apply {
        setSpan(
            ForegroundColorSpan(
                ContextCompat.getColor(
                    context,
                    R.color.id
                )
            ), startIndex, endIndex, 0
        )
    }
}

Morgan Koh · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-19 04:24:22Z

I've wrote a method to handle it.

isSearchForward is a parameter to toggle whether to search the string from forward or backward, as this only highlights the first occurance.

private fun highlightKeywords(
    highlightColor: Int,
    message: String,
    keyword: String?,
    isSearchForward: Boolean? = true
): SpannableString {
    val spannableString = SpannableString(message)
    if (!keyword.isNullOrBlank()) {
        val startIndex = if (isSearchForward == true) {
            message.indexOf(keyword)
        } else {
            message.lastIndexOf(keyword)
        }
        val endIndex = startIndex + keyword.length

        spannableString.setSpan(UnderlineSpan(), startIndex, endIndex, 0)

        spannableString.setSpan(
            ForegroundColorSpan(highlightColor),
            startIndex,
            endIndex,
            Spannable.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE
        )
    }
    return spannableString
}

android developer · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-14 11:13:18Z

0

You can use my answer from here, so your code would be like:

val email:SpannableString 
... - prepare the email variable
val feedback = SpanFormatter.format(getString(R.string.give_us_feedbac),email)

answered Nov 14, 2023 at 11:13

android developer

117k162 gold badges794 silver badges1.3k bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Style text of parameter in getString(int resId, Object... formatArgs) method

4 Answers 4

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

4 Answers 4

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related