People often link the following for explaining formatted strings, Can anyone show me a working example of how to use this?
<string name="welcome_messages">Hello, %1$s! You have %2$d new messages.</string>
Resources res = getResources();
String text = String.format(res.getString(R.string.welcome_messages), username, mailCount);
well the name of the string is "welcome_message", for example you want to add that formated text into component, just edit layout.xml, find your component, and set the text on component to use that string
component < ....
android:text="#string/welcome_message
... />
Can l add same sting to string in resources like it's?
<string name="text_base">Same text</string>
<string name="text_base_my_text">#string/text_base + and new text</string>
Can l get string in text_base_my_text "Same text and new text"?
yes you can <string name="Hor">#string/Cli</string> <string name="Cli">HOLA</string> in string.xml
and you can see "HOLA" when you refer #string/Hor
if you a literal inside android understand that all is a literal. i mean:
<string name="text_base">Same</string>
<string name="other">#string/text_base + new text </string>
you will see #string/text_base + new text when you refer to #string/other
but if you put:
<string name="text_base">Same</string>
<string name="other">#string/text_base</string>
when you refer to #string/other you will see Same
Let's say I have this string:
Your player has a good keeper skill and a decent people skill
Now the part not in bold of the string is always the same, what is known at runtime is the part in bold.
So how could I do something like:
Your player has a {var1} keeper skill and a {var2} people skill
and then fill those vars at runtime with right values?
I do not want to concatenate strings like:
"You player has a" + var1 + "keeper skill and a" + var2 + "people skill"
You need to see Android string resource guide. There is a way to provide static string which can be later formatted with variables.
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/string-resource.html#FormattingAndStyling
You will define string like
<resources>
<string name="welcome_messages">Hello, %1$s! You have <b>%2$d new messages</b>.</string>
</resources>
And later in code you can replace
Resources res = getResources();
String text = String.format(res.getString(R.string.welcome_messages), username, mailCount);
CharSequence styledText = Html.fromHtml(text);
in Strings.xml
You player has a %1$d keeper skill and a %2$d people skill
in java
getString(R.string.article_stats, var1, var2);
Yes, see the following from android devguide
If you need to format your strings using String.format(String, Object...), then you can do so by putting your format arguments in the string resource. For example, with the following resource:
<string name="welcome_messages">Hello, %1$s! You have %2$d new messages.</string>
In this example, the format string has two arguments: %1$s is a string and %2$d is a decimal number. You can format the string with arguements from your application like this:
Resources res = getResources();
String text = String.format(
res.getString(R.string.welcome_messages),
username, mailCount);
in strings xml you have define html syntax in CDATA tag like
<![CDATA[<b> %1$s bought </b>, last purchased from %2$s <b> %3$s </b>]]>
and in your java class
String detail = String.format(getString(R.string.detail),15,"New Delhi","23 mins ago");
detailView.setText(Html.fromHtml(detail ));
Is it possible to have placeholders in string values in string.xml that can be assigned values at run time?
Example:
some string PLACEHOLDER1 some more string
Formatting and Styling
Yes, see the following from String Resources: Formatting and Styling
If you need to format your strings using String.format(String, Object...), then you can do so by putting your format arguments in the string resource. For example, with the following resource:
<string name="welcome_messages">Hello, %1$s! You have %2$d new messages.</string>
In this example, the format string has two arguments: %1$s is a string and %2$d is a decimal number. You can format the string with arguments from your application like this:
Resources res = getResources();
String text = String.format(res.getString(R.string.welcome_messages), username, mailCount);
Basic Usage
Note that getString has an overload that uses the string as a format string:
String text = res.getString(R.string.welcome_messages, username, mailCount);
Plurals
If you need to handle plurals, use this:
<plurals name="welcome_messages">
<item quantity="one">Hello, %1$s! You have a new message.</item>
<item quantity="other">Hello, %1$s! You have %2$d new messages.</item>
</plurals>
The first mailCount param is used to decide which format to use (single or plural), the other params are your substitutions:
Resources res = getResources();
String text = res.getQuantityString(R.plurals.welcome_messages, mailCount, username, mailCount);
See String Resources: Plurals for more details.
Supplemental Answer
When I first saw %1$s and %2$d in the accepted answer, it made no sense. Here is a little more explanation.
They are called format specifiers. In the xml string they are in the form of
%[parameter_index$][format_type]
%: The percent sign marks the beginning of the format specifier.
parameter index: This is a number followed by a dollar sign. If you had three parameters that you wanted to insert into the string, then they would be called 1$, 2$, and 3$. The order you place them in the resource string doesn't matter, only the order that you supply the parameters.
format type: There are a lot of ways that you can format things (see the documentation). Here are some common ones:
s string
d decimal integer
f floating point number
Example
We will create the following formatted string where the gray parts are inserted programmatically.
My sister Mary is 12 years old.
string.xml
<string name="my_xml_string">My sister %1$s is %2$d years old.</string>
MyActivity.java
String myString = "Mary";
int myInt = 12;
String formatted = getString(R.string.my_xml_string, myString, myInt);
Notes
I could use getString because I was in an Activity. You can use context.getResources().getString(...) if it is not available.
String.format() will also format a String.
The 1$ and 2$ terms don't need to be used in that order. That is, 2$ can come before 1$. This is useful when internationalizing an app for languages that use a different word order.
You can use a format specifier like %1$s multiple times in the xml if you want to repeat it.
Use %% to get the actual % character.
For more details read the following helpful tutorial: Android SDK Quick Tip: Formatting Resource Strings
When you want to use a parameter from the actual strings.xml file without using any Java code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE resources [
<!ENTITY appname "WhereDat">
<!ENTITY author "Oded">
]>
<resources>
<string name="app_name">&appname;</string>
<string name="description">The &appname; app was created by &author;</string>
</resources>
This does not work across resource files, i.e. variables must be copied into each XML file that needs them.
Was looking for the same and finally found the following very simple solution. Best: it works out of the box.
1. alter your string ressource:
<string name="welcome_messages">Hello, <xliff:g name="name">%s</xliff:g>! You have
<xliff:g name="count">%d</xliff:g> new messages.</string>
2. use string substitution:
c.getString(R.string.welcome_messages,name,count);
where c is the Context, name is a string variable and count your int variable
You'll need to include
<resources xmlns:xliff="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">
in your res/strings.xml.
Works for me. :)
If you want to write percent (%), duplicate it:
<string name="percent">%1$d%%</string>
label.text = getString(R.string.percent, 75) // Output: 75%.
If you write simply %1$d%, you will get the error: Format string 'percent' is not a valid format string so it should not be passed to String.format.
Or use formatted=false" instead.
In Kotlin you just need to set your string value like this:
<string name="song_number_and_title">"%1$d ~ %2$s"</string>
Create a text view on your layout:
<TextView android:text="#string/song_number_and_title"/>
Then do this in your code if you using Anko:
val song = database.use { // get your song from the database }
song_number_and_title.setText(resources.getString(R.string.song_number_and_title, song.number, song.title))
You might need to get your resources from the application context.
In your string file use this
<string name="redeem_point"> You currently have %s points(%s points = 1 %s)</string>
And in your code use as accordingly
coinsTextTV.setText(String.format(getContext().getString(R.string.redeem_point), rewardPoints.getReward_points()
, rewardPoints.getConversion_rate(), getString(R.string.rs)));
However, you should also read Elias Mårtenson's answer on Android plurals treatment of “zero”. There is a problem with the interpretation of certain values such as "zero".
For Multilingual Projects
As someone who has worked on a major white label solution with many and varying languages and configurations per variant, I can say that there's a lot to consider.
Text direction aside, grammar alone can give you some headaches.
For instance can the order of items change thus
<string name="welcome_messages">Hello, %1$s! You have %2$d new messages.</string>
is to be preferred over
<string name="welcome_messages">Hello, %s! You have %d new messages.</string>
but once you work with translators who often don't know what a string or an integer is, let alone what formatting character to use for each type, or people in general who have no idea in what order the parameters are applied in your code, or even you yourself forget that, or things change which then must be updated at multiple places at once, so using MessageFormat like
<string name="welcome_message">Hello, {0}! You have {1} new messages.</string>
MessageFormat(R.string.welcome_message).format("Name", numMessages)
isn't viable either and the idea of having non tech people try to figure out xlift can't even be entertained then the best solution I know so far is to use explicit, named placeholders as such
<string name="placeholder_data" translatable="false">DATA</string>
<string name="placeholder_data" translatable="false">$DATA</string>
<string name="placeholder_data" translatable="false">%DATA%</string>
..or whatever else doesn't conflict with your texts.
And while you could use DOCTYPE like
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE resources [
<!ENTITY placeholder_data "$DATA">
]>
<string name="text_with_data">Your data is &placeholder_data;.</string>
this will not work with separate files for each language.
Thus in your main/res/values/strings.xml provide the placeholders and default strings like this
<resources>
<string name="placeholder_data" translatable="false">$DATA</string>
<string name="placeholder_error" translatable="false">$ERROR</string>
<string name="app_name">The App</string>
<string name="content_loading">loading..</string>
<string name="content_success">success: $DATA</string>
<string name="content_error">error: $ERROR</string>
</resources>
and then in your variant variant/res/values-de/strings.xml
<resources>
<string name="app_name">Die Applikation</string>
<string name="content_loading">Ladevorgang..</string>
<string name="content_success">Erfolg: $DATA</string>
<string name="content_error">Netzwerkkommunikationsfehler: $ERROR</string>
</resources>
and to use it, write something like
textView.text = when (response) {
is Data -> getText(content_success).resolveData(response.data)
is Error -> getText(content_error).resolveError(response.error)
is Loading -> getText(content_loading)
}
with the use of some helper functions like
fun CharSequence.resolveData(data: JsonObject) =
toString().replace(getString(placeholder_data), data.toString())
fun CharSequence.resolveError(error: Throwable) =
toString().replace(getString(placeholder_error), error.toString())
for simply the reason of having a reference for the translation files and development. Hence there should not be a default file per build flavor. Only the single default file and then a file per language x variant.
Now there's also the issue of numeric grammar. This can be solved with plurals but here again the complexity of the xml file increases. And, as pointed out, zero does not work as one would expect. But also you may want to have a limit to which your app counts due to display size limitations or number of pre-rendered images for your UI and need to display 99+ instead of 100. A solution would be to use a helper function like
fun Context.getText(
quantity: Int,
#PluralsRes resIdQuantity: Int,
#StringRes resIdNone: Int? = null,
#StringRes resIdMoreThan: Int? = null,
maxQuantity: Int? = null,
): CharSequence {
if (resIdMoreThan != null && maxQuantity != null && quantity > maxQuantity)
return getText(resIdMoreThan)
return if (resIdNone != null && quantity == 0) return getText(resIdNone)
else resources.getQuantityText(resIdQuantity, quantity)
}
to override and extend the behavior of the plurals resolver.
And if you have optional features per variant then add a res/values/strings-beans.xml like:
<resources>
<string name="placeholder_name" translatable="false">$NAME</string>
<string name="placeholder_count" translatable="false">$COUNT</string>
<string name="beans_content_bean_count_zero">Hello $NAME! You have no beans.</string>
<string name="beans_content_bean_count_one">Hello $NAME! You have one bean.</string>
<string name="beans_content_bean_count_many">Hello $NAME! You have $COUNT beans.</string>
<string name="beans_content_bean_count_more_than_9000">Hello $NAME! You have over $COUNT beans!</string>
<string name="beans_content_bean_count_two">#string/beans_content_bean_count_many</string>
<string name="beans_content_bean_count_few">#string/beans_content_bean_count_many</string>
<string name="beans_content_bean_count_other">#string/beans_content_bean_count_many</string>
<plurals name="beans_content_bean_count">
<item quantity="zero">#string/beans_content_bean_count_zero</item>
<item quantity="one">#string/beans_content_bean_count_one</item>
<item quantity="two">#string/beans_content_bean_count_two</item>
<item quantity="few">#string/beans_content_bean_count_few</item>
<item quantity="many">#string/beans_content_bean_count_many</item>
<item quantity="other">#string/beans_content_bean_count_other</item>
</plurals>
</resources>
while the variant in variant-with-beans/res/value-en/strings-beans.xml only needs to contain
<resources>
<string name="beans_content_bean_count_zero">Hello $NAME! You have no beans.</string>
<string name="beans_content_bean_count_one">Hello $NAME! You have one bean.</string>
<string name="beans_content_bean_count_many">Hello $NAME! You have $COUNT beans.</string>
<string name="beans_content_bean_count_more_than_9000">Hello $NAME! You have over 9000 beans!</string>
</resources>
and language specific overrides can be provided on a per file basis.
To use this, the code can look like this
val name = "Bob"
val beanCount = 3
val limit = 9000
text = getText(
beanCount,
beans_content_bean_count,
beans_content_bean_count_zero,
beans_content_bean_count_more_than_9000,
limit,
)
.resolveCount(beanCount)
.resolveName(name)
which resolves to the outputs
beanCount = 0 -> "Hello Bob! You have no beans."
beanCount = 1 -> "Hello Bob! You have one bean."
beanCount = 3 -> "Hello Bob! You have 3 beans."
beanCount = 9001 -> "Hello Bob! You have over 9000 beans!"
and due to the resulting simplicity of the language specific resource files, they then can be generated with deployment tools from spread sheets or your company's own server endpoints, etc.
I hope you enjoyed my maddening ride into the world of dynamic string resources for Android and hopefully appreciate that you're not the poor fools having to get the same functionality to work on the iOS side of the product which from my experience required python scripts to modify .xcodeproj files and generate swift code.
in res/values/string.xml
<resources>
<string name="app_name">Hello World</string>
<string name="my_application">Application name: %s, package name: %s</string>
</resources>
in java code
String[] args = new String[2];
args[0] = context.getString(R.string.app_name);
args[1] = context.getPackageName();
String textMessage = context.getString(R.string.my_application,(Object[]) args);
You can use MessageFormat:
<string name="customer_address">Wellcome: {0} {1}</string>
In Java code :
String text = MessageFormat(R.string.customer_address).format("Name","Family");
API level 1:
https://developer.android.com/reference/java/text/MessageFormat.html
Yes! you can do so without writing any Java/Kotlin code, only XML by using this small library I created, which does so at buildtime, so your app won't be affected by it: https://github.com/LikeTheSalad/android-stem
Usage
Your strings:
<resources>
<string name="app_name">My App Name</string>
<string name="welcome_message">Welcome to ${app_name}</string>
</resources>
The generated string after building:
<!-- Auto generated during compilation -->
<resources>
<string name="welcome_message">Welcome to My App Name</string>
</resources>
A Direct Kotlin Solution to the problem:
strings.xml
<string name="customer_message">Hello, %1$s!\nYou have %2$d Products in your cart.</string>
kotlinActivityORFragmentFile.kt:
val username = "Andrew"
val products = 1000
val text: String = String.format(
resources.getString(R.string.customer_message), username, products )
Kotlin version of the accepted answer...
val res = resources
val text = String.format(res.getString(R.string.welcome_messages), username, mailCount)
This question already has answers here:
Is it possible to have placeholders in strings.xml for runtime values?
(14 answers)
Closed 5 years ago.
In my Android app I'am going to implement my strings with internationalization. I have a problem with the grammar and the way sentences build in different languages.
For example:
"5 minutes ago" - English
"vor 5 Minuten" - German
Can I do something like the following in strings.xml?
<string name="timeFormat">{0} minutes ago</string>
And then some magic like
getString(R.id.timeFormat, dynamicTimeValue)
This behaviour would solve the other problem with different word orders as well.
Yes, just format your strings in the standard String.format() way.
See the method Context.getString(int, Object...) and the Android or Java Formatter documentation.
In your case, the string definition would be:
<string name="timeFormat">%1$d minutes ago</string>
If you need two variables in the XML, you can use:
%1$d text... %2$d or %1$s text... %2$s for string variables.
Example :
strings.xml
<string name="notyet">Website %1$s isn\'t yet available, I\'m working on it, please wait %2$s more days</string>
activity.java
String site = "site.tld";
String days = "11";
//Toast example
String notyet = getString(R.string.notyet, site, days);
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), notyet, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
If you need to format your strings using String.format(String, Object...), then you can do so by putting your format arguments in the string resource. For example, with the following resource:
<string name="welcome_messages">Hello, %1$s! You have %2$d new messages.</string>
In this example, the format string has two arguments: %1$s is a string and %2$d is a decimal number. You can format the string with arguments from your application like this:
Resources res = getResources();
String text = String.format(res.getString(R.string.welcome_messages), username, mailCount);
If you wish more look at: http://developer.android.com/intl/pt-br/guide/topics/resources/string-resource.html#FormattingAndStyling
There is many ways to use it and i recomend you to see this documentation about String Format.
http://developer.android.com/intl/pt-br/reference/java/util/Formatter.html
But, if you need only one variable, you'll need to use %[type] where [type] could be any Flag (see Flag types inside site above). (i.e. "My name is %s" or to set my name UPPERCASE, use this "My name is %S")
<string name="welcome_messages">Hello, %1$S! You have %2$d new message(s) and your quote is %3$.2f%%.</string>
Hello, ANDROID! You have 1 new message(s) and your quote is 80,50%.
Note that for this particular application there's a standard library function, android.text.format.DateUtils.getRelativeTimeSpanString().