Do multiple ImageView's holding the same image create extra Drawable objects or Drawable instances?

Question

I currently have a ViewFlipper that holds the same ImageView in each screen. The issue is that I have to create an ImageView[] array with a unique ImageView per screen in the ViewFlipper in order to add them to the ViewFlipper since I run into the child already has a parent issue when using the same ImageView. They all refer to the same resource in R.drawable.

My question is this: does every ImageView in the array create a separate instance of the drawable object or do they each simply contain a reference to the same drawable object? Also, are ImageView instances resource intensive? I'm worried that this would run into overhead issues, since this ImageView array isn't the only one.

Answer 1

As far as drawables loaded from the same resource share a common state it seems that android architects have thought of this question and the resources are used for 1 image only, so you won't get overhead in such way.
In addition: BitmapDrawables created from the same resource will for instance share a unique bitmap stored in their ConstantState.