android - ClassCastException in PreferenceActivity

Question

I am trying to get an example from the Android 2 Application Development book by Reto Meier to work (page 202). As per the instructions I have created a userpreferences.xml as follows:

<PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
  <CheckBoxPreference
    android:key="PREF_AUTO_UPDATE"
    android:title="Auto refresh"
    android:summary="Select to turn on automatic updating"
    android:defaultValue="true"  
   />
  <ListPreference
    android:key="PREF_UPDATE_FREQ"
    android:title="Refresh frequency"
    android:summary="Frequency at which to refresh earthquake list"
    android:entries="@array/update_freq_options"
    android:entryValues="@array/update_freq_values"
    android:dialogTitle="Refresh frequency"
    android:defaultValue="60"
  />
  <ListPreference
    android:key="PREF_MIN_MAG"
    android:title="Minimum magnitude"
    android:summary="Select the minimum magnitude earthquake to report"
    android:entries="@array/magnitude_options"
    android:entryValues="@array/magnitude"
    android:dialogTitle="Magnitude"
    android:defaultValue="3"
  />
</PreferenceScreen>

My Preferences class looks like this...

public class Preferences extends PreferenceActivity {
  SharedPreferences prefs;
  @Override
  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.userpreferences);
  }

I keep getting a ClassCastException: java.lang.ClassCastException: java.lang.Integer:

12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.dt.sample/com.dt.sample.Preferences}: java.lang.ClassCastException: java.lang.Integer
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2663)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2679)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.app.ActivityThread.access$2300(ActivityThread.java:125)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2033)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4627)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:868)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:626)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287): Caused by: java.lang.ClassCastException: java.lang.Integer
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.app.ContextImpl$SharedPreferencesImpl.getString(ContextImpl.java:2699)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.preference.Preference.getPersistedString(Preference.java:1249)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.preference.ListPreference.onSetInitialValue(ListPreference.java:232)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.preference.Preference.dispatchSetInitialValue(Preference.java:1172)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.preference.Preference.onAttachedToHierarchy(Preference.java:984)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.preference.PreferenceGroup.addPreference(PreferenceGroup.java:156)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.preference.PreferenceGroup.addItemFromInflater(PreferenceGroup.java:97)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.preference.PreferenceGroup.addItemFromInflater(PreferenceGroup.java:38)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.preference.GenericInflater.rInflate(GenericInflater.java:488)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.preference.GenericInflater.inflate(GenericInflater.java:326)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.preference.GenericInflater.inflate(GenericInflater.java:263)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.preference.PreferenceManager.inflateFromResource(PreferenceManager.java:251)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.preference.PreferenceActivity.addPreferencesFromResource(PreferenceActivity.java:262)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at com.dt.sample.Preferences.onCreate(Preferences.java:24)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1047)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2627)
12-16 09:28:14.349: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(287):     ... 11 more

The arrays.xml looks like this...

<resources>
  <string-array name="update_freq_options">
    <item>Every Minute</item>
    <item>5 minutes</item>
    <item>10 minutes</item>
    <item>15 minutes</item>
    <item>Every Hour</item>
  </string-array>
  <array name="magnitude">
    <item>3</item>
    <item>5</item>
    <item>6</item>
    <item>7</item>
    <item>8</item>
  </array>
  <string-array name="magnitude_options">
    <item>3</item>
    <item>5</item>
    <item>6</item>
    <item>7</item>
    <item>8</item>
  </string-array>
  <array name="update_freq_values">
    <item>1</item>
    <item>5</item>
    <item>10</item>
    <item>15</item>
    <item>60</item>
  </array>
</resources>

I tried using integer-array but that didn't help. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I had the same problem - the user preference data from the previous example in the book used different data types when saving the preference data.

The solution is to simply check the 'clear user data' checkbox when starting the AVD to get rid of the old user preferences.