Get drawable by string

Question

I parse image name by json, and now for displaying I would have to get the drawable id by the image name so I can do this:

background.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.eventimage1);

When I get the image name the format is like this:

image_ev1.png

Answer 1

Use this function to get a drawable when you have the image name. Note that the image name does not include the file extension.

public static Drawable GetImage(Context c, String ImageName) {
        return c.getResources().getDrawable(c.getResources().getIdentifier(ImageName, "drawable", c.getPackageName()));
}

then just use setBackgroundDrawable method.

If you only want the ID, leave out the getDrawable part i.e.

return c.getResources().getIdentifier(ImageName, "drawable", c.getPackageName());

Answer 2

this gets you your image id

    int resId = getResources().
getIdentifier(your_image_name.split("\\.")[0], "drawable", getApplicationInfo().packageName);   

if you need a drawable after that :

getResources().getDrawable(resId)

Answer 3

Add this method to your code:

protected final static int getResourceID
(final String resName, final String resType, final Context ctx)
{
    final int ResourceID =
        ctx.getResources().getIdentifier(resName, resType,
            ctx.getApplicationInfo().packageName);
    if (ResourceID == 0)
    {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException
        (
            "No resource string found with name " + resName
        );
    }
    else
    {
        return ResourceID;
    }
}

Then retrieve your image so:

Context ctx = getApplicationContext();
background.setBackgroundResource(getResourceID("image_ev1", "drawable", ctx)));

Answer 4

For Kotlin programmer (ContextCompat from API 22):

 var res = context?.let { ContextCompat.getDrawable(it,resources.getIdentifier("your_resource_name_string", "drawable", context?.getPackageName())) }

Your can also use e.g. "mipmap" instead of "drawable" if resource is place in other location.