Android Resource and the Eclipse switch Quick Fix

- One minute read - 191 words

In the process of updating and refactoring an old Android project I unwittingly changed a Project configuration option (the “Is Library” option) that lead to my resource file being generated differently. E.g

Before

[java] public final class R { public static final class id { public static final int button1=0x7f090001; public static final int button2=0x7f090002; public static final int button3=0x7f090003; } } [/java]

After

[java] public final class R { public static final class id { public static int button1=0x7f090001; public static int button2=0x7f090002; public static int button3=0x7f090003; } } [/java]

A subtle change indeed but one that caused the following compiler error for each line

case expressions must be constant expressions

Some googling lead me to a Stack Overflow page http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9092712/switch-case-statement-error-case-expressions-must-be-constant-expression wherein I found the root cause.

Most interestingly though, I came across the Quick Fix that would convert a switch statement into an if-else statement.

Tip You can quickly convert a switch statement to an if-else statement using Eclipse’s quick fix.

Click on the switch keyword and press Ctrl + 1 then select

Convert ‘switch’ to ‘if-else’.

What I would have given to have capability in some previous projects!