Accessing SharedPreferences without context

Question

I have read question : this and this about reading shared preferences. But they still need Context to access SharedPreferences. I want to know how to access SharedPreferences without context. Thanks in advance

You simply _can't_, but as long as your application is running there is an _Application Context_ available to be used... — K-ballo, Jun 29 '12 at 20:39
If you can elaborate on why you need it that way, maybe we can help you more with that. — Erol, Jun 29 '12 at 20:40
I built my own library very long time ago, full of static methods. But now, I want to modify that library to save some user preferences. I can pass context every static method call, but that will force me to refactor entire classes in my application. — Niyoko, Jun 29 '12 at 20:44
I do not think you will have to refactor. Inside your class, use the getApplicationContext() method and store it as a static class variable. Then use this Context variable in the static methods where you are using SharedPreferences. — Erol, Jun 29 '12 at 20:56

score 15 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

15

I solve my problem by retrieve ApplicationContext first (this) and then use that context to get SharedPreferences. thank K-ballo.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

Community

1
1

answered Jun 29 '12 at 21:09

Niyoko

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score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 29 '17 at 15:01

8

Application Class:

import android.app.Application;
import android.content.Context;

public class MyApplication extends Application {

    private static Context mContext;

    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
        mContext = getApplicationContext();
    }

    public static Context getAppContext() {
        return mContext;
    }

}

Declare the Application in the AndroidManifest:

<application android:name=".MyApplication"
    ...
/>

Usage:

PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(MyApplication.getAppContext());

answered Oct 29 '17 at 15:01

Oded Breiner

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10

context is a big data, its not good that be a static object(memory leak and...) – Abbas Torabi Sep 25 '19 at 13:15
It is impossible to generate a SharePrefs if there is no Context – Ivor Feb 10 '22 at 14:54

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered May 03 '18 at 10:45

We can have SharedPreference instance to use in a helper class having Getters and Setters, Without involving context explained here

In MainActivity add

public static SharedPreferences preferences;
preferences = getSharedPreferences( getPackageName() + "_preferences", MODE_PRIVATE);

Then in PreferenceHelper use set and get as

public static void setName(String value) {
    MainActivity.preferences.edit().putString(KEY_DEMO_NAME, value ).commit();
}
public static String getName() {
    return MainActivity.preferences.getString(KEY_DEMO_NAME,"");
}

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 30 '23 at 03:19

Oded's answer got me what I needed for my callback method in my utility class. In my case I needed a kotlin version which looks like this.

manifest

android:name=".SGAutoApp"

SGAutoApp.kt

class SGAutoApp : Application() {
    companion object {
        fun getAppContext(): Context {
            return this.getAppContext()
        }
    }
}

and then it's like below in my utility class callback method.

            val sharedPreferences = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(SGAutoApp.getAppContext())

Accessing SharedPreferences without context

4 Answers4