Develop Reference

How to get "CompileSdkversion" programmatically in Android

I have an About box in my App that displays information about the App, the phone and the data it uses. It's very useful when a user has a problem. I can get the phone's SDK version using "android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT". However, I haven't found a way to get the value of "CompileSdkversion" which indicates the SDK version the App was compiled with. This is the value that is set in the build.gradle file.

While the Android OS version varies by user, the compileSdkVersion does not. For version X.Y.Z of your app, the compileSdkVersion is whatever you said it was when you compiled that app version. So long as your about box contains the app version, you know what compileSdkVersion that you used, if you keep track of that (e.g., check what it was in your version control system).
But, if you really want to have it be available to you at runtime, you have two options.
If your minSdkVersion is 31 or higher, you can use compileSdkVersion on ApplicationInfo. However, most likely, if you are reading this before the year 2026, your minSdkVersion is lower than that.
For older devices than Android 12, you could add a BuildConfig field for it, at least with newer versions of the Android Gradle Plugin:
android {
compileSdk 31
defaultConfig {
applicationId "com.commonsware.android.myapplication"
minSdk 23
targetSdk 31
versionCode 1
versionName "1.0"
testInstrumentationRunner "androidx.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
buildConfigField "int", "COMPILE_SDK_VERSION", "$compileSdk"
}
// other stuff goes here
}
This takes your defined value for compileSdk and hoists it into BuildConfig.COMPILE_SDK_VERSION, so you can reference it at runtime. This was tested using a scrap Arctic Fox project, using Gradle 7.0.2 and 7.0.3 of the Android Gradle Plugin.

Here is the relationship between the three values:
minSdkVersion (lowest possible) <=
targetSdkVersion == compileSdkVersion (latest SDK)
CompileSdkVersion has nothing to do with what devices can and cannot run your app. Usually, you set this to be the latest version of the Android SDK.
And the targetSdkVersion should be fully tested and less or equal to compileSdkVersion.(It depends on your app)
If you are using the features of API level of 26 then you need to use compileSdkVersion 26, the lower version will give you an error.
Android supports backward compatibility
(i.e. an app compiled on 26 can also run on a phone having API level 26 or lower).

Considering your use-case, wouldn't a better approach be just to show the current app version? If you know the version, you could look up how/when it was created (via git tags, for example) and then find out the SDK version it was compiled with.

Instant App Not Compiling

When I am trying to compile with following configuration in base feature,
compileSdkVersion 25
targetSdkVersion 25
I get the below error message
"Feature modules require compileSdkVersion set to 26 or higher. compileSdkVersion is set to 25"
Is there a relation between compileSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion of instant app and installable app ? Please help.

You need a compileSdkVersion of 26. You should always use the highest possible value for compileSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion. This does not affect backward compatibility. Moreover, Google requires current values for uploading to Google Play.

How to choose Android sdkVersion properly?

everyone!
I'm new to android programming, so simple things sometimes become a problem.
I have my application. It should work on devices with Android 5 and higher.
The question is what is proper strategy of sdkVersion defining?
What I mean.
For example, I need to acheive permision to use bluetooth.
If my target sdkVersion is 7 and minimum sdkVersion is 5 I should ask permission in manifest file and then acheive it in runtime. Like this
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
...
}
But if my target sdkVersion is 5 even Build.VERSION_CODES.M cannot be resolved.
So the question is : what is proper approach to choose sdkVersion? Where can I read about it?
I read here https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html#target
but I didn't get what is best practice. So please share your experience.

Read this article from Ian Lake: Picking your compileSdkVersion, minSdkVersion, and targetSdkVersion
compileSdkVersion:
compileSdkVersion is your way to tell Gradle what version of the
Android SDK to compile your app with. Using the new Android SDK is a
requirement to use any of the new APIs added in that level.
minSdkVersion:
If compileSdkVersion sets the newest APIs available to you,
minSdkVersion is the lower bound for your app. The minSdkVersion is
one of the signals the Google Play Store uses to determine which of a
user’s devices an app can be installed on.
targetSdkVersion:
The most interesting of the three, however, is targetSdkVersion.
targetSdkVersion is the main way Android provides forward
compatibility by not applying behavior changes unless the
targetSdkVersion is updated. This allows you to use new APIs (as you
did update your compileSdkVersion right?) prior to working through the
behavior changes.
Ideally, the relationship would look more like this in the steady state:
minSdkVersion (lowest possible) <=
targetSdkVersion == compileSdkVersion (latest SDK)

I suppose you are using Android Studio and build.gradle. If not, I recommend you to get it. All of the following is relevant for Android Studio and gradle build system.
Your main mistake is that SDK version in build.gradle of app module is not the same as Android Version. Here is the list of Platform Codenames, Versions, API Levels. What you need for SDK version is number in API level column of first table.
This is how android section of build.gradle for app targeting Android 5.0 and newer should look like.
android {
compileSdkVersion 25
buildToolsVersion "25.0.3"
defaultConfig {
applicationId "net.eraga.myobjectives"
minSdkVersion 21
targetSdkVersion 25
versionCode 1
versionName "1.0"
testInstrumentationRunner "android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
}
buildTypes {
release {
minifyEnabled false
proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
}
}
}
Read more about targetSdkVersion, minSdkVersion and compileSdkVersion here.
In this case, your minSdkVersion should be 21 (android 5.0) and targetSdkVersion along with compileSdkVersionshould be 25 (android 7.1).

'Calling new methods on older versions' lint check not finding higher than minimum api calls in Android Studio

I'm developing an Android app on Android Studio and I'm calling a method from API level 19. My build.gradle looks like this:
android {
compileSdkVersion 24
buildToolsVersion '24.0.2'
productFlavors {
// Define separate dev and prod product flavors.
dev {
// dev utilizes minSDKVersion = 21 to allow the Android gradle plugin
// to pre-dex each module and produce an APK that can be tested on
// Android Lollipop without time consuming dex merging processes.
minSdkVersion 21
}
prod {
// The actual minSdkVersion for the application.
minSdkVersion 16
}
}
defaultConfig {
applicationId "com.myapp"
minSdkVersion 16
multiDexEnabled true
targetSdkVersion 24
versionCode 1
versionName "1.0"
}
}
I have no lint.xml files in my project, so no lint checks are overriden.
The problem is that the lint check "Calling new methods on older versions." doesn't find the method call for API level 19. If I open the build variants panel and select prodDebug or prodRelease the method gets underlined in red, but the project builds well. How can I get Android Studio to effectively show the aforementioned method in the analyze result or to block me from correctly building the project?
Edit
I found a way to search for methods not complying with the minimum SDK. By going to the Gradle panel on the right and running the lint task, an HTML report is generated, which finally shows the API 19 call along with other calls. Why is this not implemented into Android Studio?
Since this still does not work in Android Studio per se, but rather in Gradle, I'm not closing the question yet.

Gradle won't tell you if you are using the methods that are not supported in you minSDK if your compiled SDK version is not the minimum one. read more about it
So simply the solution is use lint feature i.e inspectcode
right click , either on project/class then => analyze=>inspectCode

Force compatibility mode while targeting higher API - Android

I help friend with fixing some bugs in application. Developer that send previous version set targetSdkViersion to 23 and Google Developer Console shows error that I cant lower it 19. Problem is, than our app works well with this build configuration without any changes in code:
compileSdkVersion 21
buildToolsVersion '21.1.2'
defaultConfig {
applicationId "com.swiatkarpia.mobileapp"
minSdkVersion 14
targetSdkVersion 19
versionCode 15
versionName "1.5"
...
compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:21.0.3'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:6.1.+'
It uses Youtube API and Google Maps API (old versions) and propably this causes the problem.
Is there any way to bypass Google's error?

Unfortunately, once you uploaded a version with taget sdk 23, you will not be able to lower the target sdk in any future versions.