What is the difference between the name attribute and context attribute in android XML?

Question

I am beginner in android and was wondering what the difference is between the tools:context and android:name attributes?

 1. android:name=".fragments.DataFragment"
 2. tools:context=".activities.MainActivity"

The full code:

<fragment xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:id="@+id/fragment"
    android:name=".fragments.DataFragment"
    tools:layout="@layout/data_fragment"/>

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".activities.MainActivity"
   />

Answer 1

In the case of the <fragment tag, the android:name attribute tells the LayoutInflater what Fragment class to instantiate when this layout is being inflated.

The tools:context tag is just to inform the layout editor where this layout is expected to be used. This is so that the editor can pull the theme from that Activity in order to display a more accurate preview (e.g. accent colors, text styles). Since a layout can be reused in multiple places, it's just a hint to the IDE on how to render it.