Using HashMap to map a String and int

Question

I have a ListView showing names of countries. I have stored the names in strings.xml as a string-array called country_names.

In populating the ListView, I use an ArrayAdapter which reads from strings.xml:

String[] countryNames = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.country_names);
ArrayAdapter<String> countryAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, R.layout.checked_list, countryNames);
myList.setAdapter(countryAdapter);

Now I also have a CountryCode for each country. When a particular country name is clicked on the ListView, I need to Toast the corresponding CountryCode.

I understand implementing a HashMap is the best technique for this. As far as I know, the HashMap is populated using put() function.

myMap.put("Country",28);

Now my questions are:

1. Is it possible to read the string.xml array and use it to populate the Map? I mean, I want to add items to the Map, but I must be able to do so by reading the items from another array. How can I do this?

   The basic reason I ask is because I want to keep the country names and codes in a place where it is easier to add/remove/modify them.

2. The string-arrays are stored in strings.xml. Where must similar integer arrays be stored? In values folder, but under any specific XML file?

Answer 1

1. As one of the possibilities, you may store 2 different arrays in XML: string array and integer array, and then programmatically put them in the HashMap.

   Definition of arrays:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <resources>
       <string-array name="countries_names">
           <item>USA</item>
           <item>Russia</item>
       </string-array>
   
       <integer-array name="countries_codes">
           <item>1</item>
           <item>7</item>
       </integer-array>
   </resources>
   

   And code:

   String[] countriesNames = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.countries_names);
   int[] countriesCodes = getResources().getIntArray(R.array.countries_codes);
   
   HashMap<String, Integer> myMap = new HashMap<String, Integer>();
   for (int i = 0; i < countriesNames.length; i++) {
       myMap.put(countriesNames[i], countriesCodes[i]);
   }
   

2. It may be a file with any name. See this