Question

I have an array like this that defines the entry values for a ListPreference:

<string-array name="sortSelectionEntryValues">
<item>0</item>
<item>1</item> 
</string-array>

Now instead of using 0 and 1 in XML, I want to use Java constants like e.g. ORDER_ASC and ORDER_DESC, because later I will access the value of the selected ListPreference entry programmatically and I have to check the value in code, but comparing the value to a well named constant makes code easier to read.

So what I want is something like that:

In Java:
class MyOrderClass
{
    public static final String ORDER_ASC="0";
    public static final String ORDER_DESC="1";
}

In the XML:
<string-array name="sortSelectionEntryValues">
<item>MyOrderClass.ORDER_ASC</item>
<item>MyOrderClass.ORDER_DESC</item> 
</string-array>

Is that somehow possible? Thanks for any hint!

(Please note, the ordering is just a dumb example, I just need to know how to integrate Java constants into the XML definition of an array)

Answer 1

That’s not possible. That said, you will never have to compare “0” to anything. You will likely use if(MyOrderClass.ORDER_ASC.equals(<selected item from list>){..} so it shouldn’t be an issue.