如何读取string.xml文件中的.txt？

Question

I have a long text that I need to put into strings and so far it looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <string name="long_text">
xxx
xxx
xxx
xxx
</string>
</resources>

And it looks bad. Besides, if I want to change the text, it is a bit inconvenient. So I would like to have something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <string name="long_text"> assets/myfile.txt </string>
</resources>

That long xxx text would be stored in a file - myfile.txt - somewhere in the folder. I've seen some solutions where the text is inserted through the java code, rather than strings.xml, but it is way too complicated for me. Can anyone help me with this?

Answer 1

Solution based heavily on the implementation provided by: https://alvinalexander.com/android/how-to-store-static-text-in-android-file-res-values

You can create a standalone resource outside of the strings.xml file if you're concerned about managing a massive block of text. This limits typos to a single file, ie if you forget a bracket somewhere it will isolate to a specific XML document.

Create an XML file in res/values called strings_longtext.xml and place the single text value in there.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <string name="very_large_string">
        <![CDATA[
            Lorem ipsum
            Lorem ipsum
            Lorem ipsum
            Lorem ipsum
            Lorem ipsum
            Lorem ipsum             
        ]]>
    </string>
</resources>

You can then access this string through a context accessor similar to a normal strings.xml file.

context.getString(R.string.very_large_string);

The reason you should not be putting file names in strings.xml is multifold:

• Changes values of strings as being actual text values to being file references that need to be parsed and processed
• Can be inadvertently broken in i18n efforts through carelessness or automation
• code/version management exists outside a defined resources directory

The purpose of strings files is for pure application-based text; adding file name interpretation to it is code smell and will cause a painful breakdown as the project gets larger, especially if the files exist outside the standard project structure.