how to get an uri of an image resource in android

I need to open an intent to view an image as follows:

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
Uri uri = Uri.parse("@drawable/sample_1.jpg");
intent.setData(uri);
startActivity(intent);

The problem is that Uri uri = Uri.parse("@drawable/sample_1.jpg"); is incorrect.

The format is:

"android.resource://[package]/[res id]"

[package] is your package name

[res id] is value of the resource ID, e.g. R.drawable.sample_1

to stitch it together, use

Uri path = Uri.parse("android.resource://your.package.name/" + R.drawable.sample_1);

Here is a clean solution which fully leverages the android.net.Uri class via its Builder pattern, avoiding repeated composition and decomposition of the URI string, without relying on hard-coded strings or ad hoc ideas about URI syntax.

Resources resources = context.getResources();
Uri uri = new Uri.Builder()
    .scheme(ContentResolver.SCHEME_ANDROID_RESOURCE)
    .authority(resources.getResourcePackageName(resourceId))
    .appendPath(resources.getResourceTypeName(resourceId))
    .appendPath(resources.getResourceEntryName(resourceId))
    .build();

Minimally more elegant with Kotlin:

fun Context.resourceUri(resourceId: Int): Uri = with(resources) {
    Uri.Builder()
        .scheme(ContentResolver.SCHEME_ANDROID_RESOURCE)
        .authority(getResourcePackageName(resourceId))
        .appendPath(getResourceTypeName(resourceId))
        .appendPath(getResourceEntryName(resourceId))
        .build()
}

public static Uri resourceToUri(Context context, int resID) {
        return Uri.parse(ContentResolver.SCHEME_ANDROID_RESOURCE + "://" +
                context.getResources().getResourcePackageName(resID) + '/' +
                context.getResources().getResourceTypeName(resID) + '/' +
                context.getResources().getResourceEntryName(resID) );
    }

For those having error, you may be entering the wrong package name. Just use this method.

public static Uri resIdToUri(Context context, int resId) {
    return Uri.parse(Consts.ANDROID_RESOURCE + context.getPackageName()
                     + Consts.FORESLASH + resId);
}

Where

public static final String ANDROID_RESOURCE = "android.resource://";
public static final String FORESLASH = "/";