My question is very simple ! I have seen several applications that define database name(or table name) as a static variable !
why ?
like :
private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "database" ;
can I define it as a final variable ?
Possibly this way you want to say that your DATABASE_NAME is not part of every instance of your class, but a part of the class itself. That would mean that each time you declare an instance of your class, each of those classes won't have a copy of that attribute but they will share that attribute instead.
Quite logic, this is meant to be a static field so why make an instance of it? And yes, it should be a final variable, as it is unlike it will change at execution time.
For convenience. The DB name never changes while the app is running or between instances of the same class - it can only change between app versions. This way if you change the name of your database you won't have to search for it in the entire app - just modify the DATABASE_NAME variable.
Related
I can store them in res/strings
<resources>
<string name="str1">app</string>
</resources>
And I can store them in static const
public static final string str1 = "app"
Which one is better?
I mean that which one will use more memory and which one will make package larger.
If you have to change some text in your app's view, then you don't have to find where you have written that text. You simply go to the strings.xml in res folder and can change the string. For that reason, the first option will always be the better option.
If you want a string that will be used as a key in your app then you can store it in a static constant variable. Like: If you want to pass data through intent or in any other way, at that time you have to pass a key. That key will be a string and can be stored in a static constant variable.
it's really depend if you treat strings as constants or not.
If you string are constants (e.g. string that will be sent as key of intent) then you can either create some Constants class or define it as a constant in your activity/fragment class. If those string are texts that will be displayed on your application UI then they should be defined as resources in your application.
BTW all the resources string can be localized to different languages
If you need more info or examples please let me know.
The package size:
I believe that "Ran Hassid"'s comment describes well about the package size.
Memory usage:
Just create an android apk file with some static final strings and then decompile it. You will see that the variable has no initial value in the compiled version and the value is replaced in all references!
For example check this sample from my decompiled apk which is also obfusicated by proguard:
public static String f10850f;
...
...
...
hashMap.put(C1554f.m14687a("\u0014]SCVQ^V"), str);
here is the actual code I have written:
public static String packageName="\u0014]SCVQ^V";
...
...
...
hashMap.put(EncryptorClass.decrypt(packageName), str);
In this case, the static final String variable in my written code has value of "\u0014]SCVQ^V" but it is not used in run-time and just copy/pasted in related pieces of code.
So using static final String variables needs no memory because variable has no initial value.
Have a look at android docs about using static final variables
Also take a look at this post regarding memory of variables with no value
Overally, I use static final variables and string resources for different purposes like code encryption, language support and whether I want to access the variable using a Context or not.
I'm trying to declare all constants used by my application in a separate constants class. I'd like to declare the application path but can't figure out how to do it in a static way.
How do I replace the "this" to something that will let me get the path?
public static final String DL_PATH = this.getApplicationContext().getFilesDir().getAbsolutePath() + "/";
How do I replace the "this" to something that will let me get the path?
You don't. There is nothing that you can use for this.
You are welcome to assign the value to DL_PATH from onCreate() of a custom Application. Or, delete DL_PATH entirely and just call getFilesDir() as needed from your various components (e.g., Activity, Service).
I know what a static variable in java and I know when to use it. But I see often appear in the android source code, the parameter private static final String TAG = "MyActivity" Do we really need this variable is kept in memory? I want to know why we use it in this way?
I am building an application and use labels in the following areas.
1. Component Names (TextView, Buttons etc)
2. Buttons in alert boxes
3. Parameters to AsyncTask
4. Key names in Intent extras
5. Log tags
I have got strings.xml files to store and use labels. I am using using it for category 1. What do you think is the best option for others?
res/strings.xml or
Constants class ?
I'll suggest to you what I normally do:
For everything that the user will read on the screen or be referenced in anyway from a XML layout, use strings.xml. I reckon that includes your 1 and 2. But remember that for AlertDialogues you can also use android.R.string.ok or android.R.string.cancel, etc; that will vary from use to use.
Also for project config values, or API keys, you could have a config.xml with String, Integers, etc. Something that makes easy to later on change those values without diving into the code.
For AsyncTask, it varies a lot of what work it is doing, but usually a network, DB or disk operation, and I try to include private static final String URL_PT1 = "http://..."; etc, in the classes themselves, as they are the only interested in knowing that address (or DB columns, or file prefix)
For key names (both in Intent and Fragment arguments) I use private static final String KEY_VALUE = "renjith.Key.MyClassName.VALUE"; and then create a public static Bundle getIntentExtras(String value) inside that class that will properly allocate the value in the extra. That's because only that one class needs to know about it's KEY values, there's no reason to make those public accessible, that will just create errors for outside classes doing it wrong.
For Logs (5), create on every class a private static final String TAG = "Renjith.ThisClassName"; (and for Fragments make the TAG public to be used in transactions). That way you can create a filter in LogCat Renjith.* and you can easily identify from where this log is coming from
edit:
For sharedpreferences it depends:
for GlobalSharedPreferences I would create one class to handle them with static set/get methods that must receive Context and all keys private static inside that class.
For local shared preferences (that only one class is interested in saving/retrieving) I would handle in a SharedPreferences file with the same name as that class and all the keys as private static inside that one class.
Again, same philosophy, only the classes that really need to know about those details will know about them, and abstracting to the rest of the classes with direct method calls.
Is there a way to have an global settings variable for an android application, which is accessable as well from any help java classes without giving them context?!
I try to explain what I mean.
I have an application version as string value in strings.xml
I can get its value from every android activity, but not from help java classes withought giving context
What I do now, is saving it in a static variable of my first activity, but it seems, that sometimes it will be erased and set to null.
May be I do something wrong?!
Sorry for newbie question.
And thank you in advance,
Mur
P.s.
I wrote a small tutorial for this topic, to show the solution.
A variable declared as public, static, and final will be visible to all of your classes and never get erased.
public static final String VERSION = "1.2.3.4";
You could make a public static variable in your application class that you fill with the value from strings.xml in the onCreate method. The application class is a singleton and will be the last thing that is killed as part of your app so it will always be there and if you make it public static there will be only one instance.
I'm guessing that you have a JAVA class for some common utility functions. You get the value of your string using a context in your Activity/Service and then pass in that value to the JAVA class function as a parameter.