Bold words in a string of strings.xml in Android

I have a long text in one of the strings at strings.xml. I want to make bold and change the color of some words in that text.

How can I do it?

You could basically use html tags in your string resource like:

<resource>
    <string name="styled_welcome_message">We are <b><i>so</i></b> glad to see you.</string>
</resources>

And use Html.fromHtml or use spannable, check the link I posted.

Old similar question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1529068/is-it-possible-to-have-multiple-styles-inside-a-textview

Use html tag inside string resources :-

<resources>
<string name="string_resource_name"><![CDATA[<b> Your text </b>]]> </string>
</resources>

And get bold text from string resources like :-

private Spanned getSpannedText(String text) {
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
            return Html.fromHtml(text, Html.FROM_HTML_MODE_COMPACT);
        } else {
            return Html.fromHtml(text);
        }
    }


 String s = format(context.getResources().getString(R.string.string_resource_name));
 textView.setText(getSpannedText(s));

As David Olsson has said, you can use HTML in your string resources:

<resource>
    <string name="my_string">A string with <i>actual</i> <b>formatting</b>!</string>
</resources>

Then if you use getText(R.string.my_string) rather than getString(R.string.my_string) you get back a CharSequence rather than a String that contains the formatting embedded.

In kotlin, you can create extensions functions on resources (activities|fragments |context) that will convert your string to an html span

e.g.

fun Resources.getHtmlSpannedString(@StringRes id: Int): Spanned = getString(id).toHtmlSpan()

fun Resources.getHtmlSpannedString(@StringRes id: Int, vararg formatArgs: Any): Spanned = getString(id, *formatArgs).toHtmlSpan()

fun Resources.getQuantityHtmlSpannedString(@PluralsRes id: Int, quantity: Int): Spanned = getQuantityString(id, quantity).toHtmlSpan()

fun Resources.getQuantityHtmlSpannedString(@PluralsRes id: Int, quantity: Int, vararg formatArgs: Any): Spanned = getQuantityString(id, quantity, *formatArgs).toHtmlSpan()

fun String.toHtmlSpan(): Spanned = if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
    Html.fromHtml(this, Html.FROM_HTML_MODE_LEGACY)
} else {
    Html.fromHtml(this)
}

Usage

//your strings.xml
<string name="greeting"><![CDATA[<b>Hello %s!</b><br>]]>This is newline</string>

//in your fragment or activity
resources.getHtmlSpannedString(R.string.greeting, "World")

EDIT even more extensions

fun Context.getHtmlSpannedString(@StringRes id: Int): Spanned = getString(id).toHtmlSpan()

fun Context.getHtmlSpannedString(@StringRes id: Int, vararg formatArgs: Any): Spanned = getString(id, *formatArgs).toHtmlSpan()

fun Context.getQuantityHtmlSpannedString(@PluralsRes id: Int, quantity: Int): Spanned = resources.getQuantityString(id, quantity).toHtmlSpan()

fun Context.getQuantityHtmlSpannedString(@PluralsRes id: Int, quantity: Int, vararg formatArgs: Any): Spanned = resources.getQuantityString(id, quantity, *formatArgs).toHtmlSpan()


fun Activity.getHtmlSpannedString(@StringRes id: Int): Spanned = getString(id).toHtmlSpan()

fun Activity.getHtmlSpannedString(@StringRes id: Int, vararg formatArgs: Any): Spanned = getString(id, *formatArgs).toHtmlSpan()

fun Activity.getQuantityHtmlSpannedString(@PluralsRes id: Int, quantity: Int): Spanned = resources.getQuantityString(id, quantity).toHtmlSpan()

fun Activity.getQuantityHtmlSpannedString(@PluralsRes id: Int, quantity: Int, vararg formatArgs: Any): Spanned = resources.getQuantityString(id, quantity, *formatArgs).toHtmlSpan()


fun Fragment.getHtmlSpannedString(@StringRes id: Int): Spanned = getString(id).toHtmlSpan()

fun Fragment.getHtmlSpannedString(@StringRes id: Int, vararg formatArgs: Any): Spanned = getString(id, *formatArgs).toHtmlSpan()

fun Fragment.getQuantityHtmlSpannedString(@PluralsRes id: Int, quantity: Int): Spanned = resources.getQuantityString(id, quantity).toHtmlSpan()

fun Fragment.getQuantityHtmlSpannedString(@PluralsRes id: Int, quantity: Int, vararg formatArgs: Any): Spanned = resources.getQuantityString(id, quantity, *formatArgs).toHtmlSpan()

Strings.xml

<string name="my_text"><Data><![CDATA[<b>Your text</b>]]></Data></string>

To set

textView.setText(Html.fromHtml(getString(R.string.activity_completed_text)));

You can do it from string

 <resources xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">

 <string name="total_review"><b>Total Review: </b> </string>

 </resources>

and can access it from the java code like

proDuctReviewNumber.setText(getResources().getString(R.string.total_review)+productDetailsSuccess.getProductTotalReview());

In Kotlin I have created an extension function for the Context. It takes a @StringRes and optionally you can provide parameters as well.

fun Context.fromHtmlWithParams(@StringRes stringRes: Int, parameter : String? = null) : Spanned {

    val stringText = if (parameter.isNullOrEmpty()) {
                    this.getString(stringRes)
                } else {
                    this.getString(stringRes, parameter)
                }

    return Html.fromHtml(stringText, Html.FROM_HTML_MODE_LEGACY)

}

Usage

tv_directors.text = context?.fromHtmlWithParams(R.string.directors, movie.Director)

here it's the solution for if there have any assigned values inside the string.xml file.

 <string name="styled_welcome_message"><![CDATA[We are <b> %1$s </b>  glad to see you.]]></string>

set in to TextView:

textView?.setText(HtmlCompat.fromHtml(getString(R.string.styled_welcome_message, "sample"), HtmlCompat.FROM_HTML_MODE_LEGACY), TextView.BufferType.SPANNABLE)

PS: don't forget to wrap your text (in String Resources) within:

<![CDATA[ YOUR TEXT HERE ]]>

strings.xml

<string name="sentence">This price is <b>%1$s</b> USD</string>

page.java

String successMessage = getText(R.string.message,"5.21");

This price 5.21 USD

I was having a text something like:

Forgot Password? Reset here.

<LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/forgotPassword"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        android:gravity="center"
        >


        <TextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:autoLink="all"
            android:linksClickable="false"
            android:selectAllOnFocus="false"

            android:text="Forgot password? "
            android:textAlignment="center"
            android:textColor="@android:color/white"
            />

        <TextView

            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:autoLink="all"
            android:linksClickable="false"
            android:selectAllOnFocus="false"

            android:text="Reset here"
            android:textAlignment="center"
            android:textColor="@android:color/white"
            android:textStyle="bold" />
    </LinearLayout>

If you want to store formatted as a string variable and reuse it to text view isn't possible

> If you aren't applying formatting, you can set TextView text directly > by calling setText(java.lang.CharSequence). In some cases, however, > you may want to create a styled text resource that is also used as a format string. Normally, this doesn't work because the > format(String, Object...) and getString(int, Object...) methods > strip all the style information from the string. The work-around to this is to write the HTML tags with escaped entities, which are > then recovered with fromHtml(String), after the formatting takes > place.

by from docs so alternatively store the string id and everyttime bind get string from using Htlm.fromHtml().. method.

ex:

Kotlin extention

fun Context.getStringFromResource(stringId: Int): Spanned {
    return if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
        Html.fromHtml(java.lang.String.format(resources.getString(stringId)), 
 Html.FROM_HTML_MODE_COMPACT)
    } else {
        Html.fromHtml(java.lang.String.format(resources.getString(stringId)))
    }
}

In code:

getStringFromResource(id)

If you want to use basic HTML tags in a string resource, it is necessary to escape the tags, otherwise they are ignored. Simply, replace '<' with &lt; and '>' with '&gt;' e.g:

<string name="bold_statement">This is a &lt;bold&gt; statement</string>

Will produce: This is a bold statement. When loading the String resource, make sure to use

HtmlCompat.fromHtml(stringFromResource, HtmlCompat.FROM_HTML_MODE_COMPACT)