How to get a resource id with a known resource name?

Question

I want to access a resource like a String or a Drawable by its name and not its int id.

Which method would I use for this?

Answer 1

int resourceID = 
    this.getResources().getIdentifier("resource name", "resource type as mentioned in R.java",this.getPackageName());

Answer 2

I would suggest you using my method to get a resource ID. It's Much more efficient, than using getIdentidier() method, which is slow.

Here's the code:

/**
 * @author Lonkly
 * @param variableName - name of drawable, e.g R.drawable.<b>image</b>
 * @param с - class of resource, e.g R.drawable.class or R.raw.class
 * @return integer id of resource
 */
public static int getResId(String variableName, Class<?> с) {

    Field field = null;
    int resId = 0;
    try {
        field = с.getField(variableName);
        try {
            resId = field.getInt(null);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return resId;

}

Answer 3

In Kotlin following works fine for me:

val id = resources.getIdentifier("your_resource_name", "drawable", context?.getPackageName())

If resource is place in mipmap folder, you can use parameter "mipmap" instead of "drawable".

Answer 4

I have found this class very helpful to handle with resources. It has some defined methods to deal with dimens, colors, drawables and strings, like this one:

public static String getString(Context context, String stringId) {
    int sid = getStringId(context, stringId);
    if (sid > 0) {
        return context.getResources().getString(sid);
    } else {
        return "";
    }
}