Question

I am creating an app with several activities. SharedPreferences are read in multiple activities.

I have found that when I update a single variable in one of the SharedPreferences files, all of the variables in that file take on the value assigned.

Is there a general reason why this might occur? If not, I can post code.

THE FOLLOWING CODE IS USED TO WRITE AND READ THE VALUES (anything in all caps is a unique integer constant)

public void LevelUp(int gameType) {
    step++;
    SharedPreferences settings = getSharedPreferences("Steps", 0);
    SharedPreferences.Editor editor = settings.edit();
    switch (gameType) {
        case NUMBERS_SPEED:   editor.putInt("NUMBERS_SPEED",   step);
        case NUMBERS_BINARY:  editor.putInt("NUMBERS_BINARY",  step);
        case NUMBERS_SPOKEN:  editor.putInt("NUMBERS_SPOKEN",  step);
        case LISTS_WORDS:     editor.putInt("LISTS_WORDS",     step);
        case LISTS_EVENTS:    editor.putInt("LISTS_EVENTS",    step);
        case SHAPES_FACES:    editor.putInt("SHAPES_FACES",    step);
        case SHAPES_ABSTRACT: editor.putInt("SHAPES_ABSTRACT", step);
        case CARDS_SPEED:     editor.putInt("CARDS_SPEED",     step);
    }
    editor.commit();        
}

public int getStep(int gameType) {
    SharedPreferences settings = getSharedPreferences("Steps", 0);
    switch (gameType) {
        case NUMBERS_SPEED:   return settings.getInt("NUMBERS_SPEED", 1);
        case NUMBERS_BINARY:  return settings.getInt("NUMBERS_BINARY", 1);
        case NUMBERS_SPOKEN:  return settings.getInt("NUMBERS_SPOKEN", 1);
        case LISTS_WORDS:     return settings.getInt("LISTS_WORDS", 1);
        case LISTS_EVENTS:    return settings.getInt("LISTS_EVENTS", 1);
        case SHAPES_FACES:    return settings.getInt("SHAPES_FACES", 1);
        case SHAPES_ABSTRACT: return settings.getInt("SHAPES_ABSTRACT", 1);
        case CARDS_SPEED:     return settings.getInt("CARDS_SPEED", 1);
        default: return -1;
    }
}

THE FOLLOWING CODE RESIDES IN A DIFFERENT ACTIVITY:

SharedPreferences settings = getSharedPreferences("Steps", 0);
step = settings.getInt("NUMBERS_SPOKEN", 1);

Answer 1

You need breaks between your case statements

switch (gameType) {
    case NUMBERS_SPEED:   editor.putInt("NUMBERS_SPEED",   step);
    break;
    case NUMBERS_BINARY:  editor.putInt("NUMBERS_BINARY",  step);
    break;

Otherwise it will go through every case statement which is why they are all getting assigned that value