Accessing integer resources in xml

Question

I have read this where found that how to access integer resources in java class but no docs for another resource.

Here is Resources at res/values/integers.xml

<resources>      <integer name="input_field_padding" >5</integer> </resources> 

Tried to access the input_field_padding in EditText.

<EditText         android:id="@+id/user_name"         android:layout_width="wrap_content"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:padding="@integer/input_field_padding" /> 

But I got the following exception

java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: Can't convert to dimension: type=0x10 

Is it possible to access it in another resources file or am I missing something?

Answer 1

Finally I am able to access integer resource in java code and integer value as dimen in xml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <resources>     <dimen name="input_field_padding">20dip</dimen>     <integer name="input_field_padding">20</integer> </resources> 

In xml file:-

<EditText     android:id="@+id/user_name"     android:layout_width="fill_parent"     android:layout_height="wrap_content"         android:padding="@dimen/input_field_padding" />  

In java file:-

EditText mUsername = (EditText) this.findViewById(R.id.user_name); //int padding = this.getResources().getInteger(R.integer.input_field_padding); int padding = (int) this.getResources().getDimension(R.dimen.input_field_padding); mUsername.setPadding(padding, padding, padding, padding); 

Answer 2

The accepted answer is completely mis-guiding. Unless there is a specific unique reason, you should never use an Integer resource for setting padding sizes. Not only in XML but also in code. This is why you experienced an UnsupportedOperationException. Integer resources are not scaled based on the DPI of screens. Which means you will not get consistently spaced padding for all devices. Dimen resources will automatically adjust their value for you. Your java code should look like this:

EditText mUsername = (EditText) this.findViewById(R.id.user_name); int padding = (int) this.getResources().getDimension(R.dimen.input_field_padding); mUsername.setPadding(padding, padding, padding, padding); 

Which, btw, there's no need to set the padding of the EditText element in code if you already set it in the XML. Unless you wanted to change it to a different value at run time.

Read more here:
Density Independence
Working with XML Layouts