android - Getting integer or index values from a list preference

Question

I'm creating lists in a shared preference and when the onPreferenceChanged() method is called I want to extract the index of the item in the list or an integer value in some cases. I am trying to build the xml data as follows:

in the arrays:

<string-array name="BackgroundChoices">
  <item>Dark Background</item>
  <item>Light Background</item> 
</string-array>
<array name="BackgroundValues">
  <item>1</item>
  <item>0</item> 
</array>
<string-array name="SpeedChoices">
  <item>Slow</item>
  <item>Medium</item>
  <item>Fast</item>
</string-array>    
<array name="SpeedValues">
  <item>1</item>
  <item>4</item>
  <item>16</item>
</array>

in the preferences xml file:

<PreferenceScreen android:key="Settings"  
   xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"  
   android:title="Settings">

<ListPreference
        android:key="keyBackground"
        android:entries="@array/BackgroundChoices"
        android:summary="Select a light or dark background." 
        android:title="Light or Dark Background"  
        android:positiveButtonText="Okay"   
        android:entryValues="@array/BackgroundValues"/>
<ListPreference 
        android:key="keySpeed" 
        android:entries="@array/SpeedChoices" 
        android:summary="Select animation speed."
        android:title="Speed" android:entryValues="@array/SpeedValues"/>
</PreferenceScreen>

So my xml does not work. I know how to do this using a string-array rather than an array for the values. And I could pull out the value strings and derive what I want from that but I would rather (if possible) be able to have lists where the values were ints, booleans, or enums. What is the customary way to do this?

thanks in advance,

Jay

Answer 1

Put the preferences in as String and use Integer.parseInt(). I think there is actually a bug report on the limitation you are referring to but I can't find the link. From experience I can tell you to just use Strings and save your self a lot of frustration.

Note to other SO users, if you can prove me wrong, I welcome it.