IssueTracker

Description:

Text could support receiving both a String and StringRes in a single constructor parameter. Currently, Text has an overloaded constructor to support both of these types in isolation but developers must handle this mapping themselves. This results in requiring two Text elements to be present in the composition and hiding them/showing them depending on the string approach. For example:

// Currently creating a wrapper to support both approaches in a single type in a ViewModel
sealed class StringRepresentation() {
    class Default(val value: Int) : StringRepresentation()
    class Resource(val resId: String) : StringRepresentation()
}

// In composition...
when (uiState.myString) {
     is StringRepresentation.StringRes -> {
         Text(stringResource(uiState.stringResId))
     }
     is StringRepresentation.Default -> {
         Text(uiState.string)
     }
}

Although this simple wrapper has helped rectify the issue in my personal project, it feels as though this should be something that is built into Compose! Its

Use Cases:

The following use cases should benefit from a feature such as this:

• Wanting to surface and use a single string-like value when fetching an object from an API; but needing to default some of it's properties to a StringRes if they are null or empty. e.g. imagine an app where you can name a dog, or default to the word dog if the user hasn't named it yet -> "{Custom name} ?: R.string.dog_default_name"

• Building custom reusable Jetpack Compose components that take either a String or a StringRes such that their API is as flexible as possible.