How create resource id without a resource

Issue

I need to associate several tags to a view so I use

 view.setTag(id, tag_object)

Unfortunately Android requires to have the id as defined in a resource. However R file is auto generated of resource ids appearing in different resource files, so I do not know how to create an id detached from any resource. As work around I just use id of some resource but it isn't robust, because if I decide to remove the resource, the id can disappear. It is also reduces readability of the code having some weird id for addressing a tag. Perhaps I missed very simple trick as ids resource file.

Solution

There is a resource type "id" that lets you define arbitrary resource IDs:

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/more-resources.html#Id

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <item type="id" name="foo"/>
    <item type="id" name="bar"/>
</resources>

Will generate R.id.foo and R.id.bar.

Answered By - Erich Douglass