Question

my question has to do with using different layouts for different screen densities on the Android platform.

Let’s say that I have four main.xml files (each in their respective folders for their corresponding screen densities: ldpi, mdpi, hdpi, and xhdpi) and let’s say that they’re all identical to start with. But let’s say I want to get rid of some of the UI elements for the ldpi layout. How do I handle things on the Java side to avoid a null pointer exception when it tries to find that view in the ldpi layout on a ldpi phone? Should I just check and see if findviewbyid returns null and move on from there?

I realize that you’re supposed to keep things uniform in your apps, but on occasion it just seems like it’d make more sense to just get rid of a convenient but otherwise unnecessary UI element. I love having the extra real-estate on these new phones, but if/when it comes time to make a ldpi layout, I’d rather not just cram everything in there when it’d look better just to get rid of some stuff, if that makes any sense!

Answer 1

It is a Good question. Null checking can be one of the solutions.
another solution is checking screen properties. look at this example:

public static boolean isTabletPC(Context context) {
        boolean isHoneycomb = Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB;
        boolean hasLargeScreen = (context.getResources().getConfiguration().screenLayout & Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_MASK)
                >= Configuration.SCREENLAYOUT_SIZE_LARGE;
        return isHoneycomb & hasLargeScreen;
    }