Cannot get Drawable id referenced from another resource file

Issue

Here is what I have:

In res/drawable-hdpi I have this image:

ar_contact

In res/values I have this file:

<resources>
    <string-array name="articles_images_thumbnail_array">
        <item>@drawable/ar_contact</item>
    </string-array>
</resources>

I want to get the id of my image from the string-array (I will have more than one image)

Now when I tried that in code, I got only the path to the image as a String:

res/drawable-hdpi-v4/ar_contact.png

This is my tried code:

id = resources.getStringArray(R.array.articles_images_thumbnail_array)[articleIndex];

The above Java code returns the path as String, But I want the id of the ar_contact image so I can use it as such:

imageThumbnail.setImageResource(id);

I have tried to use integer-array but I got only a 0 value for all my images.

Solution

You should instead use a TypedArray as said in Resources API guides :

<resources>
    <array name="articles_images_thumbnail_array">
        <item>@drawable/ar_contact</item>
    </array>
</resources>

Then retrieve the array like this :

TypedArray array = getResources().obtainTypedArray(R.array.articles_images_thumnail_array);
Drawable myDrawable = array.getDrawable(0); // Returns @drawable/ar_contact

Answered By - Antoine Marques