This lesson teaches you to
You should also read
If you have a relatively small collection of key-values that you'd like to save,
you should use the SharedPreferences
APIs.
A SharedPreferences
object points to a file containing
key-value pairs and provides simple methods to read and write them. Each
SharedPreferences
file is
managed by the framework and can be private or shared.
This class shows you how to use the SharedPreferences
APIs to store and
retrieve simple values.
Note: The SharedPreferences
APIs are
only for reading and writing key-value pairs and you should not confuse them with the
Preference
APIs, which help you build a user interface
for your app settings (although they use SharedPreferences
as their
implementation to save the app settings). For information about using the Preference
APIs, see the Settings guide.
Get a Handle to a SharedPreferences
You can create a new shared preference file or access an existing one by calling one of two methods:
getSharedPreferences()
— Use this if you need multiple shared preference files identified by name, which you specify with the first parameter. You can call this from anyContext
in your app.getPreferences()
— Use this from anActivity
if you need to use only one shared preference file for the activity. Because this retrieves a default shared preference file that belongs to the activity, you don't need to supply a name.
For example, the following code is executed inside a Fragment
.
It accesses the shared preferences file that's
identified by the resource string R.string.preference_file_key
and opens it using
the private mode so the file is accessible by only your app.
Context context = getActivity(); SharedPreferences sharedPref = context.getSharedPreferences( getString(R.string.preference_file_key), Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
When naming your shared preference files, you should use a name that's uniquely identifiable
to your app, such as "com.example.myapp.PREFERENCE_FILE_KEY"
Alternatively, if you need just one shared preference file for your activity, you can use the
getPreferences()
method:
SharedPreferences sharedPref = getActivity().getPreferences(Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
Caution: If you create a shared preferences file
with MODE_WORLD_READABLE
or MODE_WORLD_WRITEABLE
, then any other apps that know the file identifier
can access your data.
Write to Shared Preferences
To write to a shared preferences file, create a SharedPreferences.Editor
by calling edit()
on your SharedPreferences
.
Pass the keys and values you want to write with methods such as putInt()
and putString()
. Then call commit()
to save the changes. For example:
SharedPreferences sharedPref = getActivity().getPreferences(Context.MODE_PRIVATE); SharedPreferences.Editor editor = sharedPref.edit(); editor.putInt(getString(R.string.saved_high_score), newHighScore); editor.commit();
Read from Shared Preferences
To retrieve values from a shared preferences file, call methods such as getInt()
and getString()
, providing the key for the value
you want, and optionally a default value to return if the key isn't
present. For example:
SharedPreferences sharedPref = getActivity().getPreferences(Context.MODE_PRIVATE); int defaultValue = getResources().getInteger(R.string.saved_high_score_default); long highScore = sharedPref.getInt(getString(R.string.saved_high_score), defaultValue);