Develop Reference

Use Unicode characters in strings.xml

I have the following unicode character that I want to use in a string: 🚕
I have found its hex and decimal code through this:
While I know how to use the "&" symbol in a string in strings.xml by doing this:
<string name="Example">Example character &</string>
I cannot use the car symbol.
How can I use this unicode character in a string in strings.xml?
Update One:
Following the first solution of using this: 🚗
I got the following error:ERROR IN APPLICATION: input is not valid Modified UTF-8:

It's
<string name="Example">Example character \u0026</string>
See more unicode characters here:
http://www.utf8-chartable.de/unicode-utf8-table.pl?number=1024&utf8=0x

if you go Unicode site : https://unicode-table.com/en/#control-character and click at this Unicode that says U+00AE you mustn't write the + symbol if you want copy paste this example at strings.xml
:) :) :)
<string name="example">"\u00AE"</string>

Few important Unicode symbols for android strings.xml
<string name=”Rs”>\u20B9</string>
<string name=”filled_bullet”>\u25CF</string>
<string name=”linear_bullet”>\u25CB</string>
<string name=”rect_bullet”>\u25A0</string>
<string name=”blank_rect”>\u25A1</string>
<string name=”true_tick”>\u2713</string>
<string name=”star”>\u2605</string>
Full link is here

<string name="ic_happy_font"></string>
or
<string name="edit">🚕</string>

Check that the XML is in UTF-8 and has <?xml ... encoding="UTF-8"?> or defaulted <?xml ... ?>.
First the Unicode code point is U+1F695 which is decimally 128661 (not ...3).
In XML content your approach is basically correct.
🚕
🚕
The error mentions "modified" UTF-8. This just means the code point U+0000, a binary 0, is also encoded as multi-byte sequence of bytes with high bit set. This is support for C where a "string" ends on a NUL byte.
As the TAXI code point needs 4 UTF-8 bytes, it might be that the XML on Android only supports less long UTF-8 sequences. At least for numeric entities &#...;.
If the entities are a problem, use an UTF-8 capable editor and paste the TAXI from the clipboard.
You might try whether there is a work-around, whether u-escaped chars are read (probably not):
\uD83D\uDE95
A last wild attempt would be to use
<?xml version="1.1" ...

I think the code point you have in your example is an ellipsis. As per this page, try
🚗

If anyone gets underlined space although you didn't intent it, you can avoid this by using unicode code point of space
For example:
<string name="conditions">By signing in you agree to our <u>Terms &
Conditions.</u></string>
would also underline space before 'Terms & Conditions'
solution:
<string name="conditions">By signing in you agree to our\u0020<u>Terms &
Conditions.</u></string>

Adding symbols through strings.xml file

I am displaying Activity's Title from strings.xml file like this
setTitle(R.string.add_contact_title);
I have following string in strings.xml
<string name="add_contact_title">Anadir Contacto</string>
but i want to display title like Añadir Contacto instead of Anadir Contacto.
is there any way to do this within the strings.xml file rather than copying and pasting the characters from another source?

You can also use unicode using the \u escape sequence like this:
<string name="add_contact_title">A\u00F1adir Contacto</string>
See here for a list of common unicode latin characters: http://unicode-table.com/en/#latin-extended-b

You can use ñ
You can find all the HTML Special Characters in this page
Special Characters in Android & HTML
just replace the code where you want to put that character. :-)

Yes you can do that. You have to start the special character with &amp
i.e for your case it will be like ñ
<string name="add_contact_title">Añadir Contacto</string>
Just check the link which will convert ASCII into Unicode
ASCII to Unicode
and Unicode Reference

How to use escape characters in XML

How can I use escape characters in XML?
The situation is, I am a new android developer, and I need a string which need to be printed in 2 lines (other wise no space). This string is in string.xml file. I need to use /n line break character to break the string, but I don't know how to do it in XML file. Please help.

See reference http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/string-resource.html#String
line break symbol is \n
/n - is wrong.
and you can write it in xml like it is.
Example:
<string name="multiline_text">line 1.\nline2.</string>

I'm not familiar with Android development but have you checked out CDATA? Refer to this link.
Basically, you wrap your string value like so:
<![CDATA[string value]]>

You can use double quotes:
<string name="mystring">"One line\nAnother line"</string>

You can use the character entity
to indicate a linefeed.

Using an # symbol in strings.xml

How would one use an # symbol inside a string in strings.xml?
<string name="twitter">#npike</string>
The XML editor gets rather angry:
error: Error: No resource type specified (at 'twitter' with value '#npike').

Use this instead :
<string name="twitter">\#npike</string>

I would suggest use unicode like \u0040 instead of '#' symbol. XML processing doesn't like special symbols. Here is list of special characters and it's unicode valuesSpecial characters and unicode values

Try escaping it with a backslash "\#". That works for quotes. You can't use XML entities in strings.xml, otherwise I would recommend that.

writing some characters like '<' in an xml file

since the beginning of my programmation, I used some special character like "<-", ""<<" im my string.xml in Eclipse while developping for Android.
All worked fine for one year, but today, i just wanted to make some minor changes and began to edit my xml files.
I get now compilation error on these characters because eclipse believe it's part of the xml blocks.
Any idea on how I could add this symbol "<" in my xml files?
Thank a lot.

Use
< for <
> for >
& for &

Another way to insert special character follow Moss guide: How can I write character & in android strings.xml by used Unicode definition:
Example:
<string name="item_unknown">\u003c Item Unknown \u003e</string>
which present in string :
< Item Unknown >

I stumbled upon this question, as I use HTML markup in my strings.
If you refer to the Android String Resources documentation,
in the section:
"Styling with HTML markup"
you will see that in strings.xml, you need to use &amplt; for an opening bracket, but you can safely use backslash and a closing bracket. For example:
<b>Text</b>
can be written as:
<b>Text</b>
in your strings.xml.
If using this HTML string in your code, you can use:
Html.fromHtml( getResources().getString(R.string.yourHTMLString )
and the output will be your bold string!