I want to enter string " -< " in strings.xml file, the string has character < and I couldn't add it to xml file without error! I even tried to escaping by \ character: <string name="search_target_arrow"> -\< </string> or enclosing it between "" as below: <string name="search_target_arrow">" -< "</string> but none worked. Maybe I'm very amateur at this and the answer is not hard for you. so please tell me how you add such special chars in strings.xml?