How to delete an unused string resource for all configurations in Android Studio?

Question

I've found an unused string resource, like:

<string name="obsoletestring">my name is null!</string>

However it is in tens of files, of different languages, in different strings.xml files in values, values-af, values-be, etc folders.

I must have missed something not to know any way to do this in Android Studio other than modifying it by hand one by one.

tl;dr How to delete an unused string resource for all configurations?

`Menu -> Analyze -> Run Inspection by Name -> Unused resources` — Blackbelt, Mar 09 '15 at 08:19
@Blackbelt it's a nice way to find unused resources, is there any way to delete them automatically? — Apurva, Mar 09 '15 at 08:26

score 33 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 19 '15 at 15:39

To identify all unused resources:

Open Menu > Analyze > Run Inspection by Name...
Select "Unused Resources"
Make sure Whole project is checked, then press OK.
Look through the list. You can always rerun the Inspection with the Rerun button.

There is no really easy way in Android Studio (v 1.0) to remove a resource string for all locales. However, you can search and replace in files. Fortunately, the translation files use only a single line in most cases so this works pretty well.

In Android Studio:

Start with no changes pending in your source control (makes it way easier to check and back out if this goes wrong).
Open Menu > Edit > Find > Replace in Path...
In Text to find: .*name="obsoletestring".*\n
In Replace with: (empty)
Check Regular expression
Press the Find button.
Inspect the results. If okay, press the "All files" button.
You will probably have to remove the comment in res/values/strings.xml manually.
Make sure your project still builds.
Take a look at the diff of your project in your source control to ensure the change is really what you intended...

score 23 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 14 '17 at 03:08

23

It is now possible inside Android Studio. After Lint checks you see an option on the right Remove All Unused Resources!

To Delete a single string resource across all locale files, you can use the "Translation Editor". 1. Right click on the res directory to open the translation editor. 2. Select "Show All Keys" selector, and choose "Filter by Text". Supply the name of the resource that you want to delete. 3. Select the resource, and click on the "-" button

edited Nov 14 '17 at 03:08

zapping

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answered Sep 28 '16 at 14:37

chrisonline

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How do you run it ? – Scaraux May 10 '17 at 21:00
Menu "Analyze" and "Inspect Code" ! – chrisonline May 11 '17 at 07:24
2

How do you delete a single resource across multiple locale files? – inder Nov 13 '17 at 17:34

Stephen Niedzielski · Answer 3 · 2015-06-25T18:10:36.233

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Until IDE support comes along, something along these lines will work:

find -name strings.xml|xargs -rd\\n  sed -ri '/"string_to_delete"/d'

edited Jun 25 '15 at 18:10

answered May 20 '15 at 22:15

Stephen Niedzielski

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Awesome answer! It would be better if multi-lined string tags are also handled. – Roger Huang Nov 26 '15 at 03:12
This doesn't seem to work. Error: ```xargs: illegal option -- r``` – inder Nov 13 '17 at 17:33
`-r` (aliased as `--no-run-if-empty`) is probably not available on your system's version of xargs. Maybe try the long form. According to the [changelog](http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/findutils/), it looks like it's been available for about 27 years and I see it on my system's version, v4.7.0-git. – Stephen Niedzielski Nov 13 '17 at 22:50

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 23 '17 at 22:50

4

In Android Studio 2.3 it's possible to remove all unused resources.

Open any *.xml in your res/values/ directory
Right click on any item's name
Refactor -> Remove Unused Resources...

answered Feb 23 '17 at 22:50

stone

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Be careful with this one. It deleted even resources that were still being used. :-( – themarketka Oct 05 '17 at 14:50

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 14 '15 at 05:27

Menu -> Analyze -> Run Inspection by Name -> Unused resources
From the results select all string resources that are unused.
- Right-click highlighted rows and choose "Suppress with @SuppressLint(Java) or tools:ignore(XML)". This will add the attribute tools:ignore to all strings in all string files.
Menu -> Find -> Replace in Path
- Text to find: ^.*?tools:ignore="UnusedResources".*?\n
- Tick regular expression box
- Use Scope: Custom
  - Open custom scope editor and add pattern: file[app]:src/main/res//strings.xml
- Find
- Etc.

score 2 · Answer 6 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

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Unfortunately, You have to do it manually.

Check this answer to understand what exactly should you do to get rid of them using Eclipse

If you are using Android Studio find them in the whole application and also remove manually .. Check this answer

edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

Community

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answered Mar 09 '15 at 08:24

Sami Eltamawy

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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 20 '17 at 12:23

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Beware that the REMOVE UNUSED RESOURCES command cannot recognize a programmatically accessed resource as a used resource (such as getIdentifier(..) etc.). So, if you do access resources that way, it is highly risky to use that command!!

answered Dec 20 '17 at 12:23

Hanoch Moreno

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 09 '15 at 08:16

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In fact, Android Lint should report about the unused resources, but you can also try with this nice plugin.

answered Mar 09 '15 at 08:16

azurh

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How to delete an unused string resource for all configurations in Android Studio?

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