How to put a "-" in string.xml file

Question

I need to be able to put a "-" in the string inside my strings.xml file.

My problem is that when I am putting my string which is "1261eba2-9d8c-11e1-93e3-40409e0f44a1", eclipse yells:

Multiple annotations found at this line: - Replace "-" with an "en dash" character (–, &;#8211;)

How can I fix this?

where exactly do you need that value? Is it a tag, a tag value or an attribute value? — rekaszeru, May 14 '12 at 06:49

score 124 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 18 '13 at 09:59

124

So, when you read the error message, your answer will be that you have to replace - with –. Then it should work fine =)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash

edited Oct 18 '13 at 09:59

JJD

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answered May 14 '12 at 06:51

Phil

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This is OK when you just want to display the string to the user. The user can't really tell that you are "cheating" with a similar looking unicode character. If you just want to use the regular dash see this answer: http://stackoverflow.com/a/10895509/78234 – Tal Weiss Mar 26 '14 at 15:09
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I think that code is for endash, not a regular hyphen. – John61590 Sep 14 '16 at 17:19
Ya that's an en-dash not a hyphen https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/en-dash.html – Blundell Jun 25 '20 at 11:39

score 88 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 05 '12 at 10:18

88

The other answers are OK for when you want to display the string to the user. The user can't really tell the difference between a "real" dash and the unicode trickery.
But, if you really must have the dash (e.g. because that string is used as a password somewhere, or as a url key for an API) then you can just use this format:

<resources xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" tools:ignore="TypographyDashes">
    <string name="EVA_API_KEY">3c42b725-5e20-41c8-982f-dee40be8a05b</string>
</resources>

The warning will be removed and the string can be read using the regular:

getResources().getString(R.string.EVA_API_KEY);

answered Jun 05 '12 at 10:18

Tal Weiss

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One tip: you might want to put the tools:ignore="TypographyDashes" part into just those tags that really need the real dash. – Dan J Feb 25 '13 at 06:25
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For some reason it only worked for me when I put the ignore on the string i'm using. Thanks for the answer I found out it was the wrong dash, but how to get it to work wasn't as straightforward. – Mathijs Segers Jun 17 '14 at 08:49
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I was trying to launch the phone dialer for 9-1-1 and your answer was the key for that. Thanks! – Roisgoen Mar 27 '15 at 21:41

RajaReddy PolamReddy · Answer 3 · 2012-05-14T07:00:39.767

15

Use back slash ( \ ) in front of every special character. like me\&android.

This called escape character. ( \ )

edited May 14 '12 at 07:00

answered May 14 '12 at 06:51

RajaReddy PolamReddy

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I think you mean add the escape character: "\" before every special character. – drew212 May 14 '12 at 06:51
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_character escape character is backslash - "\" not forward slash - "/" – drew212 May 14 '12 at 06:53
check my answer now. this is back slash (\). – RajaReddy PolamReddy May 14 '12 at 07:02
7

when im using what you all are saing its removing the "-" char... what im getting is: 1261eba29d8c11e193e340409e0f44a1 insted of 1261eba2-9d8c-11e1-93e3-40409e0f44a1... – roiberg May 14 '12 at 07:05

Ganesh Katikar · Answer 4 · 2014-11-22T07:58:26.213

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For hyphen use (&#45) (-)...

<string name="abc">Welcome &#45; Bro...</string>

and For more symbol use below link

http://www.degraeve.com/reference/specialcharacters.php

Enjoy...

edited Nov 22 '14 at 07:58

answered Nov 05 '14 at 12:12

Ganesh Katikar

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Amr Ashraf · Answer 5 · 2016-12-22T17:27:40.703

The dash is a punctuation mark that is similar to a hyphen or minus sign, but differs from both of these symbols primarily in length and function. The most common versions of the dash are the en dash (–) and the em dash (—), named for the length of a typeface's lower-case n and upper-case M respectively.

Reference

Just replace - with – because when you type a dash on the keyboard, XML reads dash as minus, that's all.

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered May 14 '12 at 07:44

1

You probably have this:

<string name="test1">1261eba2-9d8c-11e1-93e3-40409e0f44a1</string>

But you need either one of these:

<string name="test2">1261eba2&#8211;9d8c&#8211;11e1&#8211;93e3&#8211;40409e0f44a1</string>
<string name="test3">1261eba2–9d8c–11e1–93e3–40409e0f44a1</string>

In the second one the - is replaced by a –. It's hard to tell the difference visually.

answered May 14 '12 at 07:44

Maz

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Be careful though: if you change these symbols in a URL it might stop working (mine did). – Dan J Feb 25 '13 at 06:22
I want to replace a short dash symbol (n-dash) with an escaped sequence. But `–` looks like its the escape sequence for the long dash symbol (m-dash). – Etienne Lawlor Jun 10 '16 at 18:52

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 17 '18 at 15:58

0

The quick fix shortcut in Eclipse is Ctrl + 1 by default and in Android Studio is Alt + Enter by default.

answered Dec 17 '18 at 15:58

Hasan El-Hefnawy

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How to put a "-" in string.xml file

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