[java] 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?

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));

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)));

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.

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)

I was having a text something like:

Forgot Password? Reset here.

To implement this the easy way I used the existing android:textStyle="bold"

<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>

Maybe it helps someone

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());

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)

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="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

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)