Localize the NAME of a string-array (and it's items)

August 6, 2022

I’ve got a string-array

<string-array name="Color">
    <item>@string/red</item>
    <item>@string/green</item>
    <item>@string/purple</item>
</string-array>

<string name="red">red></string>
<string name="green">green></string>
<string name="purple">purple></string>

And I asses it in Java:

int id = R.array.Color;
String[] colors = getResources().getStringArray(id);
    
variantTextView.setText(getResources().getResourceEntryName(id));
ansA.setText(colors[0]);
ansB.setText(colors[1]);
ansC.setText(colors[2]);

How do I localize the NAME of this array?
Is it required to extract the strings as I’ve done it? Or is there a way to localize the entire array?

>Solution :

How do I localize the NAME of this array?

You don’t, any more than you localize a variable name in your Java/Kotlin code. If you want to display Color to users, have that to-be-displayed value as a separate string resource.

Is it required to extract the strings as I’ve done it?

No.

Or is there a way to localize the entire array?

Have two copies of your Colors <string-array>, each in the proper resource set based on language. Each <string-array> can then have <item> elements that contain the actual strings, not references to string resources. You might do this if you want the array to have a different order of elements (e.g., sorted alphabetically).