Error in strings.xml file in Android

Question

I have declared a long string in string.xml of an application.

Declared like this

<string name="terms">PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY  BY ACCESSING THIS .................</string>

But this gives the following error :

error: Apostrophe not preceded by \ (in PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY

error is, because too many dots in string. `error: Apostrophe not preceded by ` is a dummy message, problem is in dots. As I remember, after more than three dot's you can get error. — Dudeist
– Dudeist, Commented Nov 3, 2014 at 2:23

Cœur · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-10 14:48:46Z

348

post your complete string. Though, my guess is there is an apostrophe (') character in your string. replace it with (\') and it will fix the issue. for example,

//strings.xml
<string name="terms">
Hey Mr. Android, are you stuck?  Here, I\'ll clear a path for you.  
</string>

Ref:

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=195353

https://code.google.com/archive/p/replicaisland/issues/48

edited Sep 10, 2017 at 14:48

Cœur

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answered Apr 14, 2011 at 0:15

Priyank

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5 Comments

Phil Kulak Over a year ago

Why is no one talking about this idiotic requirement that we escape every single apostrophe in string data? Even within CDATA sections!

EsbenG Over a year ago

@PhilKulak heh, it's pretty crazy with french for example. We'll search and replace ftw.

situee Over a year ago

@PhilKulak In Android strings.xml, you can enclose the whole string in the other type of enclosing quotes like <string name="good_example">"This'll work"</string> Reference: developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/…

Dan Bray Over a year ago

This can cause a problem when you have a lot of strings and use replace all. See my answer.

Jonas Simonaitis Over a year ago

if you are using it in gradle file as resValue, use " \\' "

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

37

Solution

Apostrophes in the strings.xml should be written as

\'

Example

In my case I had an error with this string in my strings.xml and I fixed it.

<item>Most arguments can be ended with three words, "I don\'t care".</item>

Here you see my app builds properly with that code.

enter image description here

Here is the actual string in my app.

enter image description here

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

CommunityBot

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answered Nov 3, 2014 at 2:17

JGallardo

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1 Comment

Chris Westin Over a year ago

Silly me, since I was using XML, I was using ', and that's an error too.

situee · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-18 02:52:04Z

20

https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/string-resource.html#FormattingAndStyling

Escaping apostrophes and quotes

If you have an apostrophe or a quote in your string, you must either escape it or enclose the whole string in the other type of enclosing quotes. For example, here are some stings that do and don't work:

<string name="good_example">"This'll work"</string>
<string name="good_example_2">This\'ll also work</string>
<string name="bad_example">This doesn't work</string>
<string name="bad_example_2">XML encodings don&apos;t work</string>

answered Mar 18, 2015 at 2:52

situee

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1 Comment

Thomas Over a year ago

XML encoding doesn't work with the ' form, but works with the ' form.

Walmac · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-03 02:43:27Z

12

You have to put \ before an apostrophe. Like this \' , Also check that you are editing strings.xml and not values.xml (android studio directs you to this file when shows the error). Because if you edit values.xml and try to compile again, the error persists. This was happening to me recently.

answered Jul 3, 2016 at 2:43

Walmac

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1 Comment

DrMcCleod Over a year ago

Haha! That just happened to me too. The apostrophe kept popping back up for exactly that reason. Was driving me nuts.

Elad Finish · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-28 10:11:25Z

9

Use this regex (?<!\\)' for searching an unescaped apostrophe. It finds an apostrophe that not preceded by a backslash.

answered Dec 28, 2018 at 10:11

Elad Finish

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Comments

Dan Bray · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-23 14:03:34Z

5

The best answer of simply escaping the ' with \' works but I do not like the solution because when using replace all with ' to \', it only works once. The second time you'll be left with \\'.

Therefore, use: \u0027.

answered Oct 23, 2018 at 14:03

Dan Bray

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Comments

Li3ro · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-03 08:43:31Z

4

I use hebrew(RTL language) in strings.xml. I have manually searched the string.xml for this char: ' than I added the escape char \ infront of it (now it looks like \' ) and still got the same error!

I searched again for the char ' and I replaced the char ' with \'(eng writing) , since it shows a right to left it looks like that '\ in the strings.xml !!

Problem solved.

answered Apr 3, 2012 at 8:43

Li3ro

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2 Comments

Li3ro Over a year ago

@akauppi, This comment is more for the RTL languages developers, since we encounter editors that cannot handle RTL very well, by showing characters in a wrong order on screen. typing in long hebrew sentenses in xml can gets messy

radley Over a year ago

We solved for Hebrew apostrophes by escaping on both sides: \'\

Photon Point · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-20 07:55:14Z

2

You may be able to use unicode equivalent both apostrophe and other characters which are not supported in xml string. Apostrophe's equivalent is "\u0027" .

edited Apr 20, 2017 at 7:55

answered Feb 29, 2016 at 8:23

Photon Point

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Comments

CodeToLife · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-24 12:53:15Z

1

1. for error: unescaped apostrophe in string

what I found is that AAPT2 tool points to wrong row in xml, sometimes. So you should correct whole strings.xml file

In Android Studio, in problem file use :

Edit->find->replace

Then write in first field \' (or \&,>,\<,\")
in second put '(or &,>,<,")
then replace each if needed.(or "reptlace all" in case with ')
Then in first field again put '(or &,>,<,")
and in second write \'
then replace each if needed.(or "replace all" in case with ')

2. for other problematic symbols
I use to comment each next half part +rebuild until i won't find the wrong sign.

E.g. an escaped word "\update" unexpectedly drops such error :)

edited May 24, 2018 at 12:53

answered May 24, 2018 at 10:44

CodeToLife

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Comments

Matt · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-01 12:10:40Z

1

To Find all the ' in your file, do the following:

Ctrl + F [Enter in the search field apostrophe] '

' should be written as "World's"

edited Apr 1, 2022 at 12:10

Matt

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answered Dec 24, 2021 at 13:09

Prajwal Waingankar

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Comments

Dharman · Accepted Answer · 2024-01-29 14:28:25Z

0

In this case please care for all string that,
not any word has " ' " this sign as normal sentence.

just add " \ " before this mark.

ex.  Normal sentence: I 'll don't make cry anyone.
       Solution sentence : I \'ll don\'t make cry anyone.

edited Jan 29, 2024 at 14:28

Dharman♦

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answered Jun 7, 2023 at 13:41

Nikhil S Marathe

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Comments

Mohamad suhieb ajaj · Accepted Answer · 2024-07-25 09:52:04Z

0

In Android XML files, the escape sequence ' is used to represent a single quote ('). This is the correct way to escape single quotes in XML. If you use card's, it should be correct for XML.

However, if ' is causing issues, it might be due to other factors like encoding problems or errors elsewhere in the XML. Ensure your XML file is saved with UTF-8 encoding, and all other strings are correctly formatted. If problems persist, check for hidden characters or invalid escape sequences.

Using card\'s is not correct in XML. In XML, the backslash () is not used for escaping characters. Always use ' for single quotes.

that is work for me

answered Jul 25, 2024 at 9:52

Mohamad suhieb ajaj

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