Android Is it possible to define a map in an XML file?

Question

I was trying to define a static hash table that makes use of resources, but I got stonewalled by the impossibility of accessing resources statically.

Then I realized that the best of all places to define a static map is in the resources files themselves.

How can I define a map in XML? I believe that if possible it should be similar to the Listpreference mechanism, with entries and entries-values.

Answer 1

A simpler option would be to use two arrays. This has the benefit of not iterating the xml file again, uses less code and its more straight forward to use arrays of different types.

<string-array name="myvariablename_keys">    <item>key1</item>    <item>key1</item> </string-array>  <string-array name="myvariablename_values">    <item>value1</item>    <item>value2</item> </string-array> 

Then your java code would look like this:

String[] keys = this.getResources().getStringArray(R.array.myvariablename_keys); String[] values = this.getResources().getStringArray(R.array.myvariablename_values); LinkedHashMap<String,String> map = new LinkedHashMap<String,String>(); for (int i = 0; i < Math.min(keys.length, values.length); ++i) {    map.put(keys[i], values[i]); }