Question

I want to access a resource like a String or a Drawable by its name and not its int id.

Which method would I use for this?

Answer 1

It will be something like:

R.drawable.resourcename

Make sure you don’t have the Android.R namespace imported as it can confuse Eclipse (if that’s what you’re using).

If that doesn’t work, you can always use a context’s getResources method …

Drawable resImg = this.context.getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.resource);

Where this.context is intialised as an Activity, Service or any other Context subclass.

Update:

If it’s the name you want, the Resources class (returned by getResources()) has a getResourceName(int) method, and a getResourceTypeName(int)?

Update 2:

The Resources class has this method:

public int getIdentifier (String name, String defType, String defPackage) 

Which returns the integer of the specified resource name, type & package.