Storing R.drawable IDs in XML array

Question

I would like to store drawable resources' ID in the form of R.drawable.* inside an array using an XML values file, and then retrieve the array in my activity.

Any ideas of how to achieve this?

Answer 1

You use a typed array in arrays.xml file within your /res/values folder that looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>

    <integer-array name="random_imgs">
        <item>@drawable/car_01</item>
        <item>@drawable/balloon_random_02</item>
        <item>@drawable/dog_03</item>
    </integer-array>

</resources>

Then in your activity, access them like so:

TypedArray imgs = getResources().obtainTypedArray(R.array.random_imgs);

// get resource ID by index, use 0 as default to set null resource
imgs.getResourceId(i, 0)

// or set you ImageView's resource to the id
mImgView1.setImageResource(imgs.getResourceId(i, 0));

// recycle the array
imgs.recycle();

Answer 2

In the value folder create xml file name it arrays.xml add the data to it in this way

<integer-array name="your_array_name">
    <item>@drawable/1</item>
    <item>@drawable/2</item>
    <item>@drawable/3</item>
    <item>@drawable/4</item>
</integer-array>

Then obtain it to your code this way

private TypedArray img;
img = getResources().obtainTypedArray(R.array.your_array_name);

Then to use a Drawable of these in the img TypedArray for example as an ImageView background use the following code

ImageView.setBackgroundResource(img.getResourceId(index, defaultValue));

where index is the Drawable index. defaultValue is a value you give if there is no item at this index

For more information about TypedArray visit this link http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/res/TypedArray.html