Can't get localized strings from xml files correctly

Question

I've been racking my head with this...

I've got a localized strings.xml file in a values-en folder with this example string: @string/my_string

The string has the following text stored in English: "My String"

When accessing the localized string via a layout, it works fine.

When I try to change it in code, that's where I get problems.

I store the string into an array of strings for later use. The 'context' is passed from my activity to a data class and used with this line of code:

dataStrings = new String[] { (String) context.getResources().getString(R.string.my_string) };

Later, I try to display this string, like so:

buttons[0].setText(dataStrings[0]);

It displays:

@string/my_string

How do I get it to display the string without '@string/', the proper localized string?

Answer 1

You can run getString() directly on the Context object; you don't need to run getResources(). However, this should do the same thing as you're currently doing so I don't think that's the source of your problem.

The first thing to confirm is that what you think is happening is happening. Either use the debugger to check that buttons[0] contains "@string/my_string" or try calling setText() with a hard-coded value to make sure the text is actually being updated on the correct button - e.g. buttons[0].setText("StackOverflow!");