Resolved color instead of a resource id

Question

Recently I've seen appeared a lint error in my code:

Should pass resolved color instead of resource id here: getResources().getColor(R.color.maps_list_background_color)
MyClass.java /myapp/android/maps line 107 Android Lint Problem

I know how to resolve it the answer is in the error, the thing is I don't get why they have added this error in the linter.

Answer 1

Methods that take a color in the form of an integer should be passed an RGB triple, not the actual color resource id. You must call getResources.getColor(resource).

The function you are calling is expecting an integer that is an RGB triple, not just the id of a color resource. The color resource id is still an integer, but would not produce the color that you are expecting if it was used as the RGB triple. In order to pass it the correct RGB triple for your color, you must resolve it with the getResources().getColor(R.color.example_color) call.