Are parameters in strings.xml possible?

Question

In my Android app I'am going to implement my strings with internationalization. I have a problem with the grammar and the way sentences build in different languages.

For example:

"5 minutes ago" - English

"vor 5 Minuten" - German

Can I do something like the following in strings.xml?

<string name="timeFormat">{0} minutes ago</string>

And then some magic like

getString(R.id.timeFormat, dynamicTimeValue)

This behaviour would solve the other problem with different word orders as well.

Solution 1

Yes, just format your strings in the standard String.format() way.

See the method Context.getString(int, Object...) and the Android or Java Formatter documentation.

In your case, the string definition would be:

<string name="timeFormat">%1$d minutes ago</string>

Solution 2

If you need two variables in the XML, you can use:

%1$d text... %2$d or %1$s text... %2$s for string variables.

Example :

strings.xml

<string name="notyet">Website %1$s isn\'t yet available, I\'m working on it, please wait %2$s more days</string>

activity.java

String site = "site.tld";
String days = "11";

//Toast example
String notyet = getString(R.string.notyet, site, days);
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), notyet, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

Solution 3

If you need to format your strings using String.format(String, Object...), then you can do so by putting your format arguments in the string resource. For example, with the following resource:

<string name="welcome_messages">Hello, %1$s! You have %2$d new messages.</string>

In this example, the format string has two arguments: %1$s is a string and %2$d is a decimal number. You can format the string with arguments from your application like this:

Resources res = getResources();
String text = String.format(res.getString(R.string.welcome_messages), username, mailCount);

If you wish more look at: http://developer.android.com/intl/pt-br/guide/topics/resources/string-resource.html#FormattingAndStyling

Solution 4

There is many ways to use it and i recomend you to see this documentation about String Format.

http://developer.android.com/intl/pt-br/reference/java/util/Formatter.html

But, if you need only one variable, you'll need to use %[type] where [type] could be any Flag (see Flag types inside site above). (i.e. "My name is %s" or to set my name UPPERCASE, use this "My name is %S")

<string name="welcome_messages">Hello, %1$S! You have %2$d new message(s) and your quote is %3$.2f%%.</string>

Hello, ANDROID! You have 1 new message(s) and your quote is 80,50%.

Solution 5

Note that for this particular application there's a standard library function, android.text.format.DateUtils.getRelativeTimeSpanString().

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