What is the difference between compileSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion

Question

I have looked at the documentation for building with Gradle  but I m still not sure what the difference between compileSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion is   All it says is      The compileSdkVersion property specifies the compilation target    Well  what is the  compilation target    I see two possible ways to interpret this    compileSdkVersion is the version of the compiler used in building the app  while targetSdkVersion is the  API level that the application targets    If this were the case  I d assume compileSdkVersion must be greater than or equal to the targetSdkVersion  They mean the same thing   compilation target      the API level that the application targets  Something else    I see that this question has been asked before  but the one answer just quotes the doc  which is what is unclear to me

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Not answering to your direct questions  since there are already a lot of detailed answers  but it s worth mentioning  that to the contrary of Android documentation  Android Studio is suggesting to use the same version for compileSDKVersion and targetSDKVersion

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As a oneliner guide    minSdkVersion  lt   targetSdkVersion  lt   compileSdkVersion     Ideally    minSdkVersion  lowest possible   lt   targetSdkVersion    compileSdkVersion  latest SDK      Read more from this great post by Ian Lake

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Late to the game   and there are several great answers above-- essentially  that the compileSdkVersion is the version of the API the app is compiled against  while the targetSdkVersion indicates the version that the app was tested against  I d like to supplement those answers with the following notes   That targetSdkVersion impacts the way in which permissions are requested    If the device is running Android 6 0  API level 23  or higher  and the app s targetSdkVersion is 23 or higher  the app requests permissions from the user at run-time  If the device is running Android 5 1  API level 22  or lower  or the app s targetSdkVersion is 22 or lower  the system asks the user to grant the permissions when the user installs the app    If the compileSdkVersion is higher than the version declared by your app s targetSdkVersion  the system may enable compatibility behaviors to ensure that your app continues to work the way you expect   ref   With each new Android release       targetSdkVersion should be incremented to match the latest API level  then thoroughly test your application on the corresponding platform version compileSdkVersion  on the other hand  does not need to be changed unless you re adding features exclusive to the new platform version As a result  while targetSdkVersion is often  initially  less than than the compileSdkVersion  it s not uncommon to see a well-maintained established app with targetSdkVersion  gt  compileSdkVersion

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The Application settings of an Android project s properties in Visual Studio 2017  15 8 5  has them combined

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My 2 cents  Compile against any version of the SDK but take care not to call any APIs that your  minimum SDK version  does not support  That means you  could  compile against the latest version of the SDK   As for  target version  it simply refers to what you planned to target in the first place and have possibly tested against  If you haven t done the due diligence then this is the way to inform Android that it needs to perform some additional checks before it deploys your lets say  Lollipop  targeted app on  Oreo    So the  target version  is obviously not lower than your  minimum SDK version  but it can t be higher than your  compiled version

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compileSdkVersion  The compileSdkVersion is the version of the API the app is compiled against  This means you can use Android API features included in that version of the API  as well as all previous versions  obviously   If you try and use API 16 features but set compileSdkVersion to 15  you will get a compilation error  If you set compileSdkVersion to 16 you can still run the app on a API 15 device as long as your app s execution paths do not attempt to invoke any APIs specific to API 16   targetSdkVersion  The targetSdkVersion has nothing to do with how your app is compiled or what APIs you can utilize  The targetSdkVersion is supposed to indicate that you have tested your app on  presumably up to and including  the version you specify  This is more like a certification or sign off you are giving the Android OS as a hint to how it should handle your app in terms of OS features   For example  as the documentation states      For example  setting this value to  11  or higher allows the system to apply a new default theme  Holo  to your app when running on Android 3 0 or higher      The Android OS  at runtime  may change how your app is stylized or otherwise executed in the context of the OS based on this value  There are a few other known examples that are influenced by this value and that list is likely to only increase over time   For all practical purposes  most apps are going to want to set targetSdkVersion to the latest released version of the API  This will ensure your app looks as good as possible on the most recent Android devices  If you do not specify the targetSdkVersion  it defaults to the minSdkVersion

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I see a lot of differences about compiledSdkVersion in previous answers  so I ll try to clarify a bit here  following android s web page   A - What Android says  According https   developer android com guide topics manifest uses-sdk-element html      Selecting a platform version and API Level When you are developing   your application  you will need to choose the platform version against   which you will compile the application  In general  you should compile   your application against the lowest possible version of the platform   that your application can support    So  this would be the right order according to Android   compiledSdkVersion   minSdkVersion  lt   targetSdkVersion  B - What others also say  Some people prefer to always use the highest compiledSkdVersion available  It is because they will rely on code hints to check if they are using newer API features than minSdkVersion  thus either changing the code to not use them or checking the user API version at runtime to conditionally use them with fallbacks for older API versions   Hints about deprecated uses would also appear in code  letting you know that something is deprecated in newer API levels  so you can react accordingly if you wish   So  this would be the right order according to others   minSdkVersion  lt   targetSdkVersion  lt   compiledSdkVersion  highest possible   What to do   It depends on you and your app   If you plan to offer different API features according to the API level of the user at runtime  use option B  You ll get hints about the features you use while coding  Just make sure you never use newer API features than minSdkVersion without checking user API level at runtime  otherwise your app will crash  This approach also has the benefit of learning what s new and what s old while coding   If you already know what s new or old and you are developing a one time app that for sure will never be updated  or you are sure you are not going to offer new API features conditionally  then use option A  You won t get bothered with deprecated hints and you will never be able to use newer API features even if you re tempted to do it

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The compileSdkVersion should be newest stable version  The targetSdkVersion should be fully tested and less or equal to  compileSdkVersion

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The CompileSdkVersion is the version of the SDK platform your app works with for compilation  etc DURING the development process  you should always use the latest  This is shipped with the API version you are using    You will see this in your build gradle file     targetSdkVersion  contains the info your app ships with AFTER the development process to the app store that allows it to TARGET the SPECIFIED version of the Android platform  Depending on the functionality of your app  it can target API versions lower than the current For instance  you can target API 18 even if the current version is 23   Take a good look at this official Google page

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compiledSdkVersion    which version of SDK should compile your code to bytecode it uses in development environment  point  it s better use last version of SDK   minSdkVersion    these item uses for installation of APK it uses in production environment   For example   if client-sdk-version    lt    min-sdk-versoin       client-can-not-install-apk  else     client-can-install-apk

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Quick summary    For minSDKversion  see latest entry in twitter handle  https   twitter com minSdkVersion   TargetSDKversion  see latest entry in twitter handle  https   twitter com targtSdkVersion or use the latest API level as indicated at devel https   developer android com guide topics manifest uses-sdk-element html  Compiled version   make it same as TargetSDKversion  maxSdkVersion  advice from Android is to not set this as you do not want to limit your app to not perform on future android releases

[android] What is the difference between compileSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion?

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