ANDROID: Swapping strings on a single clickable TextView

Question

Flash Card App

Hello, Im making a flashcard app and I would like to swap strings when the user taps on the main fcfront_textView. The main issue is with the switch statement, because it is not properly detecting the different cases and/or not swapping the strings properly. I tried everything I know and below is the best case where it swaps from Front to Back but it does not swap back.

The idea is that I will have Question/Answers strings previously stored and the onClick should swap between Q/A. Eventually I would like that the nextButton/prevButton navigate between the pair of clickable textView strings (Q/A), and to be able to add QAs but I dont know how to implement that.

Thank you for your time, follows my code:

---

.java

public class MainActivity extends splashActivity {


    Button closeButton, addButton, prevButton, nextButton;
    TextView QAText, answerText;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_flashcard);

        QAText = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.fcfront_textView);
        answerText = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.fcfront_textView); //not used anywhere atm


        QAText.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener()
        {
            //function to toggle between Q/A
            public void onClick(View v)
            {
                // exchange();

                //switch(Resources.getSystem().getString(R.string.fc_back))  //bad!

                 //switch(QAText.getText().toString()) //did not work: char != string
                switch(R.string.fc_front)
                {
                    case R.string.fc_front:
                        ((TextView)findViewById(R.id.fcfront_textView)).setText(R.string.fc_back);
                        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), R.string.fc_front , Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                        //QAText.setVisibility(v.GONE);
                        break;

                    case R.string.fc_back:
                        ((TextView)findViewById(R.id.fcfront_textView)).setText(R.string.fc_front);
                        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "SWAPPING: back-to-front", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                        break;
                }
                Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "OUT OF THE SWITCH", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

            }
        });

    }


    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will
        // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long
        // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml.
        int id = item.getItemId();
        if (id == R.id.action_settings) {
            return true;
        }
        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }


    //gets click event directly from xml
    public void next_Clicked(View view)
    {
        //test:
        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Next button works!!", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }

    public void prev_Clicked(View view)
    {
        //test:
        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Prev button works!!", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }


    //supposed to swap strings (did not work)
    private void exchange()
    {
        String frontstring = getString(R.string.fc_front);
        String backstring = getString(R.string.fc_back);
        String displaystring = getString(R.string.action_settings);


        //test:
        // Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "textView works!", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

            if (frontstring != displaystring) {
                //displaystring =  getString(R.string.fc_back);
                ((TextView) findViewById(R.id.fcfront_textView)).setText(R.string.fc_back);

            } else {
                //displaystring = getString(R.string.fc_front);
                ((TextView) findViewById(R.id.fcfront_textView)).setText(R.string.fc_front);
            }


//switch case by id did not work:
//        switch(view.getId())
//        {
//            case R.id.fcfront_textView:
//                TextView txtView = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.fcfront_textView);
//                txtView.setVisibility(View.GONE);
//                break;
//        }
        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "end of exchange()", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

    }




} //end of main

---

layout.xml

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    tools:context=".MyActivity"
    android:clickable="true"
    android:id="@+id/background"
    android:background="#ff80b5ff">

    <TextView
        android:text="@string/fc_front"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/fcfront_textView"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true"
        android:textSize="30sp"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:linksClickable="true"
        android:textIsSelectable="false"
        android:singleLine="true"
        android:onClick="OnClick"

        android:clickable="true" />

    <!--<TextView-->
        <!--android:text="@string/fc_back"-->
        <!--android:layout_width="wrap_content"-->
        <!--android:layout_height="wrap_content"-->
        <!--android:layout_below="@+id/fcfront_textView"-->
        <!--android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"-->
        <!--android:id="@+id/fcback_textView"-->
        <!--android:textSize="30sp"-->
        <!--android:linksClickable="true"-->
        <!--android:textIsSelectable="false"-->
        <!--android:singleLine="true"-->
        <!--android:clickable="true" />-->

    <Button
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="@string/main_prev"
        android:id="@+id/prevbutton"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:gravity="bottom|center"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:textSize="30sp"
        android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
        android:onClick="prev_Clicked"
        />


    <Button
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="@string/main_next"
        android:id="@+id/nextbutton"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
        android:gravity="bottom|center"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:textSize="30sp"
        android:hint="Browse +"
        android:onClick="next_Clicked"


    android:layout_alignParentEnd="true" />


<Button
    style="?android:attr/buttonStyleSmall"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="X"
    android:id="@+id/closebutton"
    android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
    android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:textSize="30sp"

    android:layout_alignParentEnd="true" />

<Button
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="+"
    android:id="@+id/plusbutton"
    android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
    android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:textSize="30sp"

    android:layout_alignParentStart="true" />

</RelativeLayout>

---

strings.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>

    <string name="app_name">CSCE305HW1</string>
    <string name="fc_front">FLASHCARD: FRONT</string>
    <string name="fc_back">FLASHCARD: BACK</string>
    <string name="Q1">Question1</string>
    <string name="A1">Answer1</string>
    <string name="Q2">Question2</string>
    <string name="A2">Answer2 </string>
    <string name="action_settings">Nothing here yet</string>
    <string name="title_activity_main">MainActivity</string>
    <string name="title_activity_goodbye">goodbye</string>
    <string name="main_next">Next</string>
    <string name="main_prev">Previous</string>

</resources>

Answer 1

You should compare strings :

string front = getActivity().getResources().getString(R.string.fc_front);
string back = getActivity().getResources().getString(R.string.fc_back);

if (answerText.getText().toString().compareTo (front) == 0 ) {
        //do something
    } else if (answerText.getText().toString().compareTo (back) == 0 ) {
       // do something else
    }

Do not compare strings using equals, use compareTo instead.

You should remove the switch case and use this if/else instead.

Answer 2

I think your problem is with your switch statement . what do you mean switch(R.string.fc_front) ? it's like this :

  switch (2)
  {
     case 2 : 
       ...
       break;
     case 1 :
       ...
       break;
  }

because in R.java file, every resource stores as a number.

you have to check your TextView's text not R.string.fc_front .

try this :

 if (textView.getText().equals("string1")) {
     ...
 } else if (textView.getText().equals("string2")) {
     ...
 } ...

Answer 3

Try to use if-else instead switch for string comparison :

if(QAText.getText().toString().equals(getString(R.string.fc_front))){
   QAText.setText(R.string.fc_back);
   Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), R.string.fc_front , Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}else{
   QAText.setText(R.string.fc_front);
   Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "SWAPPING: back-to-front", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}