I have my custom attr.xml document in which I specified declare-styleable:
TypedArray array = context.obtainStyledAttributes(attrs, R.styleable.EditTextValidateablePreference); int resID = array.getResourceId(R.styleable.EditTextValidateablePreference_errorMessage, R.string.default_text);
And from this int, you can get the string by saying...
getResources().getString(resID);