Consider this:
styles.xml
<style name="BlueTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Black.NoTitleBar"> <item name="theme_color">@color/theme_color_blue</item> </style> attrs.xml
<attr name="theme_color" format="reference" /> color.xml
<color name="theme_color_blue">#ff0071d3</color> So the theme color is referenced by the theme. How can I get the theme_color (reference) programmatically? Normally I would use getResources().getColor() but not in this case because it's referenced!
This should do the job:
TypedValue typedValue = new TypedValue(); Theme theme = context.getTheme(); theme.resolveAttribute(R.attr.theme_color, typedValue, true); @ColorInt int color = typedValue.data; Also make sure to apply the theme to your Activity before calling this code. Either use:
android:theme="@style/Theme.BlueTheme" in your manifest or call (before you call setContentView(int)):
setTheme(R.style.Theme_BlueTheme) in onCreate().
I've tested it with your values and it worked perfectly.
ContextThemeWrapper using the theme id and then retrieve the theme from that.
theme_color references a ColorStateList: you can use this solution to get default color or AppCompatResources.getColorStateList(context, typedValue.resourceId) to get ColorStateList object.
MaterialColors.getColor(context, R.attr.colorError, Color.GRAY)We can use the utility class provided by Material Design library:
int color = MaterialColors.getColor(context, R.attr.theme_color, Color.BLACK) NOTE: Color.BLACK is the default color in case the attribute supplied to the u
val primaryColor = MaterialColors.getColor(view, R.attr.colorPrimary)
android:textColorSecondary, not textColorSecondary. also make sure that the context had applied that styleTo add to the accepted answer, if you're using kotlin.
@ColorInt fun Context.getColorFromAttr( @AttrRes attrColor: Int, typedValue: TypedValue = TypedValue(), resolveRefs: Boolean = true ): Int { theme.resolveAttribute(attrColor, typedValue, resolveRefs) return typedValue.data } and then in your activity you can do
textView.setTextColor(getColorFromAttr(R.attr.color))
@ColorInt fun Context.getThemeColor(@AttrRes attribute: Int) = TypedValue().let { theme.resolveAttribute(attribute, it, true); it.data } (poorly formatted here but it's ok)val errorColor = context.getThemeColor(R.attr.colorError)ColorStateList: @ColorInt fun Context.getThemeColor(@AttrRes attribute: Int) = obtainStyledAttributes(intArrayOf(attribute)).use { it.getColor(0, Color.MAGENTA) } (from Nick Butcher)ColorStateList, even if it references another theme attributes: fun Context.getThemeColor(@AttrRes attribute: Int): ColorStateList = TypedValue().let { theme.resolveAttribute(attribute, it, true); AppCompatResources.getColorStateList(this, it.resourceId) } (single colors will be wrapped in a ColorStateList too).2021/January/8If you want to get color from theme attributes, use the following steps.
Create a variable my_color and store the color from theme attributes as,
val my_color = MaterialColors.getColor(<VIEWOBJECT>, R.attr.<YOUATRRIBUTENAME>) In place of <VIEWOBJECT>, pass a view object where you want to use the color, (behind the scenes it's just used to get the context as <VIEWOBJECT>.getContext() so that it can access resource i.e theme attribute values) . In place of <YOURATTRIBUTENAME>, use the name of the atrribute that you want to access
Example 1:
If you want want to get color referenced by theme attributes from certain activity. Create a variable that represents a view object on which you want to use the color. Here i have a textView in my activity, i'll just reference its object inside textview variable and pass it to the getColor method and behind the scenes it'll use that object to just get the context, so that it can access theme attribute values
val textview: TextView = findViewById(R.id.mytextview) val my_color = MaterialColors.getColor(textView, R.attr<YOURATTRIBUTENAME>) Example 2 :
If you want to get color from theme attributes inside a custom view then just use,
val my_color = MaterialColors.getColor(this, R.attr.<YOUATRRIBUTENAME>) Inside a custom view this refers to the object of the custom view, which is in fact a view object.
This worked for me:
int[] attrs = {R.attr.my_attribute}; TypedArray ta = context.obtainStyledAttributes(attrs); int color = ta.getResourceId(0, android.R.color.black); ta.recycle(); if you want to get the hexstring out of it:
Integer.toHexString(color) Add this to your build.gradle (app):
implementation 'androidx.core:core-ktx:1.1.0' And add this extension function somewhere in your code:
import androidx.core.content.res.use @ColorInt @SuppressLint("Recycle") fun Context.themeColor( @AttrRes themeAttrId: Int ): Int { return obtainStyledAttributes( intArrayOf(themeAttrId) ).use { it.getColor(0, Color.MAGENTA) } } 
android.R.attr.textColorSecondary reference and only this solution worked. thanks.I use this kotlin extension
@ColorInt fun Context.getColorFromAttr( @AttrRes attrColor: Int ): Int { val typedArray = theme.obtainStyledAttributes(intArrayOf(attrColor)) val textColor = typedArray.getColor(0, 0) typedArray.recycle() return textColor } sample
getColorFromAttr(android.R.attr.textColorSecondary) If you want to get multiple colors you can use:
int[] attrs = {R.attr.customAttr, android.R.attr.textColorSecondary, android.R.attr.textColorPrimaryInverse}; Resources.Theme theme = context.getTheme(); TypedArray ta = theme.obtainStyledAttributes(attrs); int[] colors = new int[attrs.length]; for (int i = 0; i < attrs.length; i++) { colors[i] = ta.getColor(i, 0); } ta.recycle(); For those who are looking for reference to a drawable you should use false in resolveRefs
theme.resolveAttribute(R.attr.some_drawable, typedValue, **false**);
With me it only worked using ContextCompat and the typedValue.resourceId
As proposed in this question: How to get a value of color attribute programmatically
TypedValue typedValue = new TypedValue(); getTheme().resolveAttribute(R.attr.colorControlNormal, typedValue, true); int color = ContextCompat.getColor(this, typedValue.resourceId) 
Here's a concise Java utility method that takes multiple attributes and return an array of color integers. :)
/** * @param context Pass the activity context, not the application context * @param attrFields The attribute references to be resolved * @return int array of color values */ @ColorInt static int[] getColorsFromAttrs(Context context, @AttrRes int... attrFields) { int length = attrFields.length; Resources.Theme theme = context.getTheme(); TypedValue typedValue = new TypedValue(); @ColorInt int[] colorValues = new int[length]; for (int i = 0; i < length; ++i) { @AttrRes int attr = attrFields[i]; theme.resolveAttribute(attr, typedValue, true); colorValues[i] = typedValue.data; } return colorValues; } 
For me now this is the best way to control colors when theme is dark and light
val color = if (isSystemInDarkTheme()) Color.Black else Color.White isSystemInDark() //this code return a true or a false 