Finding an element within the same TableRow

Question

I'm trying to create a function that pulls together information that is currently scattered around different parts of my project.

As part of this task, I have a layout file with something like the following content... basically a set of rows, with each row having a label (TextView) and a UI element (e.g. CheckBox, Spinner or EditText) to collect information from the user:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    style="@style/MyLinearLayout.Section"
    android:id="@+id/section_pressure" >

    <TableLayout style="@style/MyTableLayout"
        android:id="@+id/table_pressure" >

        <TableRow style="@style/MyTableRow" >

            <TextView
                style="@style/MyTextView.Label.WithHelp"
                android:tag="label_show"
                android:text="@string/label_show" />

            <CheckBox
                style="@style/MyCheckBox"
                android:id="@+id/pressure" />

        </TableRow>

        <TableRow style="@style/MyTableRow" >

            <TextView
                style="@style/MyTextView.Label.WithHelp"
                android:tag="label_unit"
                android:text="@string/label_unit" />

            <Spinner
                style="@style/MySpinnerStyle"
                android:id="@+id/pressureUnit" />

        </TableRow>

    </TableLayout>

</LinearLayout>

I already have an array of all the android:id values for the UI elements, and from that I want to generate another array of the corresponding android:text labels.

e.g. from R.id.pressureUnit I want to find the associated R.string.label_unit from that TableRow, so that I have a central record of what label is used for each UI element... currently that information is scattered across lots of different layout files.

Is this possible programmatically?

Answer 1

From what I understand you want to find @string resource ID of a sibling view of a given view.

Assuming you have the xml file already inflated, you can do the following:

private int getSiblingStringId(@IdRes int viewId) {
    View uiElement = findViewById(viewId);
    ViewGroup parent = (ViewGroup) uiElement.getParent();

    // iterate through the siblings
    for (int i = 0; i < parent.getChildCount(); i++) {
        View view = parent.getChildAt(i);
        if (view instanceof TextView) {
            String value = ((TextView) view).getText().toString();

            // found
            return getStringIdFromValue(value);
        }
    }

    throw new IllegalArgumentException("no TextView sibling for " + viewId);
}

private int getStringIdFromValue(String value) {
    // get all fields using reflection
    Field[] fields = R.string.class.getDeclaredFields();

    for (Field field : fields) {
        int stringResId = getResources().getIdentifier(field.getName(), "string", getPackageName());
        String s = getString(stringResId);
        if (s.equals(value)) return stringResId;
    }

    throw new IllegalArgumentException("no matching string for " + value);
}

The above code will work inside an activity. You might need to modify it a bit for other classes. (You will need to call findViewById, getResources and getString)