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Can't add two string-arrays to strings.xml resource

I am relatively new to android, so please be patient. In my project, I need two spinner objects and therefore need two different string-arrays within my strings.xml resource file. When I try to add the second string-array to the xml and run the app, I get a resource compilation failed error. It points to :app:mergeDebugResources which failed. I don't really know what else is wrong aside from this one message, as there is nothing that populates in the Logcat window. Please let me know if more info is needed.
<resources>
<string name="app_name">MindYourPet2</string>
<!-- TODO: Remove or change this placeholder text -->
<string name="hello_blank_fragment">Hello blank fragment</string>
<string name="submit">submit</string>
<string name="pet_profiles_title">Pets</string>
<string name="add_pet_title">Add Pet</string>
<string name="reminders_title">Reminders</string>
<string-array name="species">
<item>-</item>
<item>Cat</item>
<item>Dog</item>
</string-array>
<string-array name="frequency">
<item>Don't Repeat</item>
<item>Every Day</item>
<item>Every Week</item>
<item>Every Month</item>
</string-array>

I think the problem could be a syntax error in the XML preventing Android Studio/SDK from finishing the parsing of your XML resources for generation of things such as R.java
One problem I notice in your XML is that apostrophe needs escaping.
<item>Don't Repeat</item>
Should be
<item>Don\'t Repeat</item>
This way it does not treat the apostrophe as a quote and cause problems in the format of the XML, it instead treats it like any other character.

How can i create nested array in android studio Strings.xml

<resources>
<string name="app_name">UnConv</string>
<string-array name="mainunit">
<item>Area</item>
<item>Pressure</item>
<item>Speed</item>
<item>Volume</item>
</string-array>
</resources>
i want to add some other values to the above items like a subgroup. Example for area i want yard, acre etc how can i achieve that?

Unfortunately, There is no direct way to save two dimensional string-array in Android resource file. I provide 2 methods for replacement.
1. Save the data as Json string showing in the following code:
<string name="mainunit">{"Area":["yard","acre"],"Pressure":[],"Speed":[],"Volume":[]}</string>
Then parse Json String to Java/Kotlin Object.
2. Save subgroup value splitting with ",", and get value by position, but it has drawback because it ignored the key name.
<string-array name="mainunit">
<item>yard,acre</item>
<item>Pressure</item>
<item>Speed</item>
<item>Volume</item>
</string-array>

Get data from android string array from resource

I know how to get data from string-array. I have done like this.
<string-array name="values">
<item>value1</item>
<item>value2</item>
</string-array>
String[] values = this.getResources().getStringArray(R.array.values);
But I dont know whether the below type string-array is possible and confused to get values from that.
<string-array name="country_data">
<item>
<country>Afghanistan</country>
<countryCode>93</countryCode>
<iso2>AF</iso2>
<iso3>AFG</iso3>
</item>
</string-array>
If it is possible please help me to get the values.

I dont know whether the below type string-array is possible
It is not.
If you want to have arbitrary XML, use res/xml/ for whatever XML structure you like. You can then use getResources().getXml() to get an XmlPullParser that you can use to parse that XML.
Or, wrap the contents of each of your <item> elements in CDATA, which should prevent the resource parser from messing with them. Then, each string you retrieve from the array would be plain XML, that you would need to parse.
Or, go with JSON in res/raw/ or assets/, using your favorite JSON parser (e.g., Gson).
Or, use SQLiteAssetHelper to package a database in your app that has this data pre-loaded.
Or, use R. Zagórski's solution, of having one <string-array> per object, with <item> elements for each field of the object.

xml :
<string-array name="_name">
<item>n11</item>
<item>n12</item>
<item>n13</item>
<item>n14</item>
<item>n15</item>
<item>n16</item>
</string-array>
Retrieve at java class:
String[] test;
test = getResources().getStringArray(R.array._name);

Of course it is possible.
In summary:
Define POJO representing your model
Create a function to import string array of arrays from resources into this POJO
Remember that you cannot use custom xml entries, they have to be <item>. And you need to know it's type upfront.

How Do I call String-array value in xml layout

I have a string-array in my string.xml file in Android res/value folder like this
my string.xml
<string-array name="books_titles_en">
<item>Smoking Effeccts on Your Body</item>
<item>Smoking - effects on your body</item>
<item>How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease</item>
<item>patterns of use, health effects, use in smoking cessation and regulatory issues</item>
</string-array>
I need to retrieve the first element of array like this
my home.xml
<TextView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:paddingLeft="#dimen/frag_1_text_pad"
android:textSize="#dimen/frag_1_text_size"
android:paddingRight="#dimen/frg_1_text_right_pad"
android:id="#+id/book_link0"
android:text="#string-array/book_title_en[0]"/>
I know it seems like it will cause an error. How do I retrive these things on the string-array in string.xml in Android

Just to giva a full answer to your problem:
There is no way of accessing an array directly, but you could do something like this:
<string name="books_titles_en_1">Smoking Effeccts on Your Body</string>
<string name="books_titles_en_2">Smoking - effects on your body</string>
<string name="books_titles_en_3">How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease</string>
<string name="books_titles_en_4">patterns of use, health effects, use in smoking cessation and regulatory issues</string>
<string-array name="books_titles_en">
<item>#string/books_titles_en_1</item>
<item>#string/books_titles_en_2</item>
<item>#string/books_titles_en_3</item>
<item>#string/books_titles_en_4</item>
</string-array>
and then:
<TextView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:paddingLeft="#dimen/frag_1_text_pad"
android:textSize="#dimen/frag_1_text_size"
android:paddingRight="#dimen/frg_1_text_right_pad"
android:id="#+id/book_link0"
android:text="#string/book_title_en_1"/>
So you basically reference the neccessary strings directly, that are referenced in your string array. ;)

Refer to this link Android - retrieve string array from resources
And this link Help in getting String Array from arrays.xml file
Basically you will have to code for the array retrieval xml in the Java Class by making an adapter.
The first link I posted used
for(int i = 0; i < menuArray.length; i++)
{
Button b = new Button(this);
b.setText(menuArray[i]);
ll.addView(b);
}
which is a sample of how to obtain the whole array from the xml.
You can modify it for single array value retrieval, or whichever array value you wish to retrieve.
Happy coding :D

Associating ULRs with items in a string array

I want to associate URLs with items in a string array so that when an item in a ListView is selected data is scraped from the URL. I was wondering could the URL be added as metadata in the strings.xml file? Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to proceed?

Strings.xml isn't the right place. You COULD define the URLs, one at a time, in strings.xml, like this:
<string name="url1">http://foo1.com</string>
<string name="url2">http://foo2.com</string>
// etc
And then create an array at runtime, dumping all these values in one-by-one. But that would suck.
Instead, create an xml file in res/values/, name it whatever you want (for instance, urlvals.xml), and populate it like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<array name="urls">
<item>http://foo1.com</item>
<item>http://foo2.com</item>
</array>
</resources>
Then, in code, reference it in the following way:
String[] myUrls = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.urls);

If you want an array of string resources, you can either:
1) add the strings in strings.xml (as per #Alexander's answer), and reference them by name in an array in values/yourresourcename.xml as per here.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<array name="myLinks">
<item>#string/link1</item>
<item>#string/link2</item>
</array>
2) add them directly the string array (verbatim) like #Alexander suggests
How you associate them with the elements in the ListView is up to you. I would suggest (if the content is static) creating a matching string array for (e.g.) the string you want to actually display (as opposed to the link itself).