Question

I’m trying to produce a simple oracle app where when you ask the app a question it spits out an answer based on a random number.

I’ve done some research and it seems to me the best practice way of doing things is to create a resource for my answers containing a string array, i can then type my various answers in to the array.

In my Java code in my main activity i can then generate a random number upon the click of a button. This random number can then correspond to the number of the index.

My problem comes when i try to piece the random number and the facility to access the string array together in code.

Here is a copy of my answerStrings.xml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<resources>
    <string-array
    name="answers">
    <item>Yes</item>
    <item>No</item>
    <item>Maybe</item>
    <item>Quite possibly</item>
</string-array>
</resources>

Here is my java code:

import java.util.Random;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.res.Resources;
import android.media.MediaPlayer;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Vibrator;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class MainActivity extends Activity implements OnClickListener {

TextView    outputText;
MediaPlayer mpGobble;
Vibrator    vibr;
String[]    answers;
private Random myRandom = new Random();
int         randomNumber;

/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);

    //find the output text view for use within the activity

    outputText = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.textView01);

    outputText.setOnClickListener(this);

    //Declare an array of outputs
    Resources res = getResources();
    String[] answers = res.getStringArray(R.array.answers);
    //--------^ Problem

    outputText.setText("Ask your question then click me");
}


@Override
public void onClick(View src) {
    switch(src.getId()){
    case R.id.textView01:

        //creates a random number
        int randomNumber = myRandom.nextInt(3);

        String answer = answers[randomNumber];

        outputText.setText(answer);




            break;
    }

}
}

I’m programming in Java with the eclipse IDE and as you have probably guessed i’m new to the game!

All help is much appreciated!!

Answer 1

The below code will put your String resource array into a String[] called answers.

Resources res = getResources();
String[] answers = res.getStringArray(R.array.answers);

You can then select your answer with

String answer = answers[YOUR_RANDOM_WHOLE_NUMBER];

An FYI, string arrays in resources can only be 512 entries long.
Some string resource help
Some general resource class help