How can I use html styles in strings with format arguments?

Question

In my app, I'd like to define a format string in strings.xml that looks like this (note the ... tags):

<string name="location"><b>Location:</b> %1$s</string>

And then use getString(int, Object...) to substitute in a format argument:

String formattedString = getString(R.string.location, "Edmonton, AB");

This produces a value of "Location: Edmonton, AB". I'd like to get a value of "Location: Edmonton, AB".

Is there some way of doing this using string formats in strings.xml without splitting it up into two strings?

Paul Burke · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-19 06:32:57Z

21

From the docs:

Sometimes you may want to create a styled text resource that is also used as a format string. Normally, this won't work because the String.format(String, Object...) method will strip all the style information from the string. The work-around to this is to write the HTML tags with escaped entities, which are then recovered with fromHtml(String), after the formatting takes place.

For example:

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

Make sure to escape the text you are passing in String.format()

String escapedUsername = TextUtils.htmlEncode(username);
Resources res = getResources();
String text = String.format(res.getString(R.string.welcome_messages), escapedUsername, mailCount);
CharSequence styledText = Html.fromHtml(text);

edited Jan 19, 2012 at 6:32

answered Nov 17, 2011 at 18:45

Paul Burke

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2 Comments

Paul Burke Over a year ago

@GregInYEG - Happens to the best of us. My pleasure.

pepan Over a year ago

Just be aware of the fact that TextUtils.htmlEncode() method does not replace ' ' (space) with ' '. This is causing troubles in my case (I'm using mailto: hyperlink with subject and body parameters). Otherwise the solution above works great.

Kuffs · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-18 10:18:58Z

1

Use String.Format. e.g.

  <string name="location"><![CDATA[<b>Location:</b> %s]]></string>

String formattedString = String.Format(getString(R.string.location), "Edmonton, AB");

edited Nov 18, 2011 at 10:18

answered Nov 17, 2011 at 16:22

Kuffs

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4 Comments

Greg Over a year ago

The string in your example doesn't contain styles. If it did, the call to getString(R.string.location) would strip them out.

Kuffs Over a year ago

I thought the point was to format a string which is what my example does. Add the format characters as extra parameters to the format method.

Greg Over a year ago

String.format(getString(R.string.location), "Edmonton, AB") returns the same thing as getString(R.string.location, "Edmonton, AB"). Neither preserve styles like ... in the string from strings.xml. @iPaulPro's answer points to the android documentation that explains if I want to use both styles and format arguments, I need to escape the styles and use Html.fromHtml(...).

Kuffs Over a year ago

You need to escape your string resources. I have amended my answer above. (Did not realise the Html codes were the point of the question)

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