CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidsharedpreferences
WHOATEMYNOODLES
WHOATEMYNOODLES

Reputation: 2731

Shared Preferences - Should I store key values as strings? Possible bad practice

I'm using shared preferences and am a bit unsure on what the best practice is on what data type to store key value pairs.

Example: I have a spinner with 3 drop down options: apple, banana, orange

In my spinner, I select the option orange and save it to shared preferences with the key KEY_SPINNER_FRUIT_OPTION what data type should the value be? Currently I'm saving it as Strings

orange

Would it be better to use Integer instead?

String lastSelectedSpinnerOption = getSharedPref().getLastSavedValue("KEY_SPINNER_FRUIT_OPTION");

if(lastSelectedSpinnerOption.equals("orange")){
   mSpinner.setSelection(2);
}

or

Integer lastSelectedSpinnerOption = getSharedPref().getLastSavedValue("KEY_SPINNER_FRUIT_OPTION");

if(lastSelectedSpinnerOption == 2){
   mSpinner.setSelection(2);
}

Upvotes: 1

Views: 231

Answers (2)

Nazarii Moshenskyi
Nazarii Moshenskyi

Reputation: 2108

If you will store Integer your code won't be maintanable. If you change positions of elements(or add new element in saved position) in Spinner, your code won't work as expected.

What you can do is storing string value of chosen item into SharedPrefs and then:

int position = adapter.getPosition(myValueFromSharedPrefs);
position = position > 0 ? position : 0; // if this element was removed, choose first item of the list
mSpinner.setSelection(position);

Upvotes: 2

zovakk
zovakk

Reputation: 325

Well there's no any best practice as on what type you should write in SharedPreferences (as long as it is an accepted type for the API).

It actually totally depends on what you will do with this value. If your goal is to save UI state and you're absolutely sure that the retained position will hold the same String value, you could save the Integer.

But I'd rather save the String value as it is the user's intention to select an "orange" and when it is time to restore the UI state, I'd look for the position matching the "orange" value.

Upvotes: 2

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