iPhone and iPad in Action

Chapter 9. Data: advanced techniques

This chapter covers

• Using SQLite
• Using the Address Book framework
• Using Core Data

In the last chapter, we discussed how information can be saved and retrieved on the iPhone and iPad. Those techniques are great for simple data such as user preferences, but what happens when you want to save thousands of records?

Saving large amounts of information to NSUserDefaults would be awkward and clunky, and serialization is too slow. The solution is to use a relational database. Apple has provided a couple of options for mass storage using relational databases. These options are SQLite and Core Data. We’ll look at both as well as the built-in Address Book framework, which isn’t related to data storage but has some ...