Question

Is it possible to reference a string in strings.xml

Eg:

<string name="application_name">@string/first_name Browser</string>
<string name="first_name">Chrome</string>

Where depending on requirements, i can switch the value of first_name to “Chrome”, “Firefox” or “Opera”.

Answer 1

You can give the reference of string resource, but limitation are as follows

<string name="first_name">Chrome</string>
<string name="application_name">@string/first_name</string> // gives "Chrome"
<string name="application_name">Chrome @string/first_name</string> // gives "Chrome @string/first_name"
<string name="application_name">@string/first_name Chrome </string> // gives error

If content starts with "@" then Android considers this is a referenced string, see last case which gives an error because Android’s tools take @ and the next string to it as the string’s reference name, it will try to find a resource called "@string/first_name Chrome" which doesn’t exist.

You can use String Format to dynamically assign sub-strings like <string name="application_name">%1$s browser</string>

to use

String text = res.getString(R.string.application_name,"Chrome");