Error in strings.xml: invalid symbol 'continue'

Question

In my strings.xml file I have

<string name="continue">Continue</string>

I can't build my project because of the error: "Invalid symbol: 'continue'". Why I can't use such a name?

Answer 1

It's because continue is a reserved symbol in Java, so you cannot use it as a name for any object in your XML files or Java code.

The reason this is a problem is that the XML defined in your project is translated into Java code that the Dalvik VM can understand. So, your code above translates into the following in R.java:

public final class R {
    public static final class string {
        public static final int continue=0x7f040000;
    }
}

The problem is more obvious when examining the (would-be) generated code.

See list of reserved Java symbols for others to avoid.

Answer 2

"continue" is a Java keyword and the R.java would not compile.

public static final int continue=0x7f040001;

the above code would cause an "Syntax error on token "continue", invalid VariableDeclaratorId" error.