iOS Components and Frameworks: Understanding the Advanced Features of the iOS SDK

Persistent Store

The persistent store (NSPersistentStore) represents a file where data is stored. When setting up an app to use Core Data, all that is needed is to specify the name, location, and type of the persistent store. Core Data can use SQLite and binary storage file types on iOS, and can use XML in Mac OS X (Core Data can also use an in-memory store, which does not save any data in a file). Most iOS apps use the SQLite option, since Core Data can leverage query capabilities for great performance. An important item to note is that Core Data manages the SQLite file directly. Core Data cannot use an existing SQLite file; it must create the file and schema itself, which it does when it first attempts to use the file if it is not present. ...