Storing simple data

It's a common requirement to store simple data, and Android makes it simple using the Preferences API. It's not limited to just user preferences either; you can store any of the primitive data types using a name/value pair.

We'll demonstrate saving a name from an EditText and displaying it when the application starts. The following screenshots shows how the application looks the first time with no saved name:

This is an example of how it looks after saving a name:

Getting ready

Create a new project in Android Studio and call it Preferences. Use the default Phone & Tablet options and select Empty Activity in the Add an Activity to Mobile dialog.

How to do it...

We'll use the existing TextView to display a Welcome back message and create a new EditText button to save the name. Start by opening activity_main.xml:

1. Replace the existing TextViewwith the following new views:

<TextView
android:id="@+id/textView"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content...