Android strings xml similar texts

Question

In my Android app I'm using strings.xml for all texts. I have many situations where I use almost the same string,

e.g. "Name" and "Name:" - translation is the same only additional colon is difference.

Is there any other way to have these two string except creating two string items like this:

<string name="name">Name</string>
<string name="name2">Name:</string>

Answer 1

There is no way you can concatenate strings in the strings.xml file.

All you can do is specify the format,

<string name="name">Name</string>
<string name="string_with_colon">%s:</string>

Then pass the name programatically,

String.format(getString(R.string.string_with_colon), getString(R.string.name));

Answer 2

Yes, you can do so without writing any Java/Kotlin code, only XML by using this small library I created which does so at buildtime: https://github.com/LikeTheSalad/android-stem

Usage

Based on your example, you'd have to set your strings like this:

<string name="name">Name</string>
<string name="name2">${name}:</string>

And then after building your project, you'll get:

<!-- Auto generated during compilation -->
<string name="name2">Name:</string>