CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidxmlline-breaksaapt
Denys Avilov
Denys Avilov

Reputation: 444

How to preserve line breaks in xml <string> resources in Android?

I'm trying to use multi-line constants (defined in .xml file under /res/values/ folder), but it seems it's impossible to preserve line breaks there - they all being converted in spaces. I've tried to play with "formatted" attribute of strings (setting it both to "true" and "false", also I've tried wrapping strings in CDATA tags, like this:

<string name="str1">
A
B
C
</string>

<string name="str2" formatted="true">
A
B
C
</string>

<string name="str3" formatted="false">
A
B
C
</string>

<string name="str4"><![CDATA[
A
B
C
]]></string>

<string name="str5" formatted="true"><![CDATA[
A
B
C
]]></string>

<string name="str6" formatted="false"><![CDATA[
A
B
C
]]></string>

All these string declaration variants produce identical results - five-character string "A B C" (line breaks replaced by single space). Is there any way to avoid this?

P.S. I understand that I can use "\n" to insert line breaks, but anyway resulting string will contain spaces in place of actual line-breaks; i.e., following declaration:

<string name="str1">
A\n
B\n
C\n
</string>

results in string "A\n B\n C\n" (every manually inserted line break followed by annoying space). Is there any workaround?..

Upvotes: 17

Views: 39217

Answers (7)

DSF.Inc
DSF.Inc

Reputation: 3221

In latest android version you have only one solution.

Your string data must look like this.

<string name="thanks_from_head_shield">
    Mr. Prasanna Sumudu Chandrasekara<br />
    https://www.java2s.com<br />
    https://www.oracle.com/java<br />
    https://www.javatongue.blogspot.com<br />
    https://www.coderwall.com<br />
    https://www.igetintopc.com<br />
    https://www.tutorialspoint.com<br />
    https://stackoverflow.com<br />
    https://www.javatpoint.com<br />
    https://coderanch.com<br />
    https://www.c-sharpcorner.com<br />
    https://javapointers.com<br />
    https://www.fatalerrors.org<br />
    https://dzone.com<br />
    https://www.javamadesoeasy.com<br />
    https://www.geeksforgeeks.org<br />
    https://www.jetbrains.com<br />
    https://www.developer.android.com<br />
    Adobe.Inc<br />
    Thanks for other all softwares I used  and Other<br />
</string>

You can add <br /> tag without <![CDATA[...]]> tag. This is 100% working in Android studio 4.2.1. But I only tested it with API Level 30. @Chris Moore is incorrect for android studio 4.2.1.

Upvotes: 0

gmk57
gmk57

Reputation: 939

I finally found a way that does not add extra spaces anywhere and looks okay for me:

<string name="test">
A\
B\
C\
</string>

And another one:

<string name="test">
"A
B
C"
</string>

Tested with Android Studio 4.1.2 on API 21 & 30.

Upvotes: 1

Moritz Both
Moritz Both

Reputation: 1628

Use another backslash at the end of each line:

<string name="str1">
A\n\
B\n\
C\n\
</string>

This way, you insert line breaks using the "\n" and you escape the line end in the resource file so it is not converted to space.

Still ugly, but it works.

Upvotes: 13

Jin
Jin

Reputation: 6145

In case people are having problems with this, inserting \n at the end of XML string causes indentation. For example:

<string name="test">
    A\n
    B\n
    C
</string>

Will appear as

A
  B
  C

Instead, you need to insert \n at BEGINNING of XML strings

<string name="test">
    A
    \nB
    \nC
</string>

This will cause the new lines to show up properly.

Upvotes: 27

kekolab
kekolab

Reputation: 831

My two cents.
I solved using string arrays, loading the resource and then concatenating the elements of the array.
I also find it nice to have each long string in a separate file.

String[] storages = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.storages);
String oneline = new String();
    for (int i = 0; i < storages.length; i++) {
        oneline = oneline.concat(storages[i]);
        if (i < storages.length - 1)
            oneline.concat(System.getProperty("line.separator"));
    }

Upvotes: 0

Chris Moore
Chris Moore

Reputation: 91

Use html breaks like this:

<string name="your_string">
<![CDATA[
<p>
    Here is your text.<br/>
    This text is on a new line.<br/>
    So is this text. \n
    This is on the previous line with a space added.
</p>
]]>
</string>

Upvotes: 5

ShujatAli
ShujatAli

Reputation: 1376

To add a newline from XML, you need to add "\n".

This is how you do it.

<string name="testing">A\nB\nC</string>

<TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:lines="4"
        android:text="@string/testing"/>

Hope this helps

Upvotes: 3

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