Android resources getting string names "dynamicaly"

Question

I have 2 activities, one with buttons which have ID's. Depending on which button you click, an ID is passed to a second activity through it's intent. I then in that second activity want to retrieve string values based on the id of that button. I had named my string values as followed:

<resources>
    <string name="app_name">DataApp</string>
    <string name="info_title_zalm">Zalm</string>
    <string name="info_weight_zalm">1kg</string>
    <string name="info_origin_zalm">Atlantische Oceaan</string>
    <string name="info_title_haai">Haai</string>
    <string name="info_weight_haai">200kg</string>
    <string name="info_origin_haai">Atlantische Oceaan, zoet water uitzonderingen</string>
</resources>

So the string have a shared start of the name, for example info_title_zalm and info_title_haai. When clicking the haai button a "haai" string is passed to the second activity, where I was planning to do something such as "info_title_" + string to get the corresponding string. But because of needing to retrieve it as R.string.info_title_haai this doesn't work.

Is such a thing possible in Android?

Using Android Studio, building for Jellybean and above.

You can pass the int id (R.string.info_title_haai) instead of the value. Thus the second activity can obtain the value by getString(extraID) — Héctor Valls
– Héctor Valls, Commented Feb 18, 2015 at 12:18
but how do I build R.string.info_title_haai when it needs to depend on what button is pressed? I want to make it so that pressing the button decides which suffix is added and which strings appear. — Kevin Peters
– Kevin Peters, Commented Feb 18, 2015 at 12:19

Jofre Mateu · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-18 12:20:00Z

4

I use this:

int resId = getResources().getIdentifier("info_title_" + string, "string", getPackageName());
String s = getString(resId);

Here you have more info

answered Feb 18, 2015 at 12:20

Jofre Mateu

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NoGall · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-18 12:20:36Z

2

You can use a some kind of wrapper method like this (untested):

private String getStringResourceByName(String myResourceName) {
    String packageName = getPackageName();
    int resId = getResources()
            .getIdentifier(myResourceName, "string", packageName);
    if (resId == 0) {
        return myResourceName;
    } else {
        return getString(resId);
    }
}

Which will get values depending on matches to myResourceName - Then you can pass in whatever you like.

answered Feb 18, 2015 at 12:20

NoGall

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GvS · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-18 12:22:16Z

1

If you only have two options, you could pass the ID's of all the resources you need to via the intent.

If this table will grow larger, I think you're better off by packing a small database with your application.

answered Feb 18, 2015 at 12:22

GvS

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1 Comment

Kevin Peters Over a year ago

You are right in that I would probably have to work with a small db if this would be larger, but for the time being I am just testing a concept with small amounts.

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