Question

How do you avoid repeating code for UI elements that are exactly the same? In android, to access an element programatically you need to name each element with a unique id.

For example I have a back button that performs the exact same function wherever its used but because of having to id them, I end up having BackButton1, BackButton2, BackButton3 etc. As a result I have to rewrite the same OnClickListener for each button.

Is there something similar to a html ‘class’ attribute or a similar way to group elements in android? If not, what is the best way to name repeating elements?

Answer 1

if you are defining the button in the layout xml, then you can use the onclick attribute to refer to a common method in your activity that will called when the button is clicked.

if you use onclick="doBack" in the xml in then your activity you have a method called

public void doBack(View v) {
   // perform back
}