Reference string resource from code

Question

I have the following string declared in strings.xml:

<string name="last_msg">Your last click was on</string>

Now when someone clicks a button, I want a textview to show this string, with a space, then a variable value that is a timestamp.

Unfortunately, using @string/last_msg isn't working, and I'm not sure how to do this properly so I'm not hardcoding in content.

Here's my code for the onClick function:

public void showMsgNow(View view) {
    TextView lastMsg = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.textView2);
    long currentTimeStamp = System.currentTimeMillis();
    lastMsg.setText(@string/last_msg + " " + currentTimeStamp);
}

I'm a newbie, any help would be great !

Search on google/web before posting questions, this is the simple thing u can even find out in docs too. — AAnkit, May 22 '12 at 09:12

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '12 at 04:41

11

I found the answer on Google:

getString(R.string.last_msg)

edited May 23 '12 at 04:41

Glauco Vinicius

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answered May 22 '12 at 09:08

scarhand

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To clarify, this is `android.content.Context#getString`. – Alexander Terp Mar 18 '21 at 10:18

score 10 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 10 '15 at 08:59

you cant access String directly by @, for that you need to have context resource and then just do this...

lastMsg.setText(context.getResources().getString(R.string.last_msg) + " " + currentTimeStamp);

in your case use

<string name="last_msg">Your last click was on %1$s</string>

implementation:

public void showMsgNow(View view) {
    TextView lastMsg = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.textView2);
    long currentTimeStamp = System.currentTimeMillis();
    lastMsg.setText(context.getResources()
        .getString(R.string.last_msg, currentTimeStamp));
}

Sandeep P · Answer 3 · 2013-11-09T10:42:14.187

6

// getString is method of context
if (this instanceof Context) 
//If you are in Activity or Service class            
 lastMsg.setText(getString(R.string.last_msg)+ " " + currentTimeStamp);
else                         
//you need to context to get the string 
  lastMsg.setText(getString(mContext,R.string.last_msg)+ " " + currentTimeStamp);


  public String getString(Context mContext, int id){
     return mContext.getResources().getString(id);
  }

edited Nov 09 '13 at 10:42

answered May 22 '12 at 09:08

Sandeep P

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so i dont need to use the getString function?? – scarhand May 22 '12 at 09:08
when i dont use the getString function it just comes up as an integer and not the string... – scarhand May 22 '12 at 09:10
No need to use here, in android R is the Resource class, all the resources stored in the raw folder have ids in the R class – Sandeep P May 22 '12 at 09:17
String myString = lastMsg.getString().toString(); – Sandeep P May 22 '12 at 09:20
This doesn't work as R.string.last_msg is an int, you can't add a String to an int. You'll have at least to use getString(). See @Ankit's answer for an example. – Marc Plano-Lesay Nov 08 '13 at 15:38

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered May 22 '12 at 09:09

1

use below line

 lastMsg.setText(getString(R.string.last_msg) + " " + currentTimeStamp);

answered May 22 '12 at 09:09

AAnkit

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score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 01 '14 at 14:31

0

Try this :

lastMsg.setText(R.string.last_msg + " " + new SimpleDateFormat(d-MM-YYYY).format(new Date()));

edited Nov 01 '14 at 14:31

IntelliJ Amiya

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answered May 22 '12 at 09:13

Kumar Vivek Mitra

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Reference string resource from code

5 Answers5

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