Fetched Results Controller returns Number of Sections = 0

I am using a NSFetchedResultsController inside a UITableViewController. Unfortunately, [self.fetchedResultsController.sections count] returns a value of 0 which is incorrect. It should return 1 section:

- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView
{
    NSInteger numberOfSections = [self.fetchedResultsController.sections count];
    return numberOfSections;
}

This is the code I am using to instantiate the NSFetchedResultsController and load the results:

@interface SearchQueryViewController ()

@property (strong, nonatomic) NSFetchedResultsController *fetchedResultsController;
@property Search *selectedSearch;
@end

@implementation SearchQueryViewController

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    if (!self.managedDocument) {
        [[MyDocumentHandler sharedDocumentHandler] performWithDocument:^(UIManagedDocument *document) {
            self.managedDocument = document;
            // Uncommenting the following code lines does not change the outcome:
            /*self.fetchedResultsController = nil;
             [self.tableView reloadData];*/
        }];
    }
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
}
# pragma Fetched Results Controller

- (NSFetchedResultsController *)fetchedResultsController
{
    if (_fetchedResultsController) return _fetchedResultsController;

    NSFetchRequest *request = [NSFetchRequest fetchRequestWithEntityName:@"Search"];

    request.sortDescriptors = @[[NSSortDescriptor sortDescriptorWithKey:@"query" ascending:YES selector:@selector(localizedCaseInsensitiveCompare:)]];

    self.fetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc]
                                     initWithFetchRequest:request managedObjectContext:self.managedDocument.managedObjectContext
                                     sectionNameKeyPath:nil cacheName:nil];
    return _fetchedResultsController;
}

- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView
{
    NSInteger numberOfSections = [self.fetchedResultsController.sections count];
    return numberOfSections;
}
// THIS IS NEVER BEING CALLED BECAUSE NUMBER OF SECTIONS IS RETURNED AS ZERO:
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    id <NSFetchedResultsSectionInfo> sectionInfo = [[self.fetchedResultsController sections] objectAtIndex:section];

    NSInteger numberOfRows = [sectionInfo numberOfObjects];
    return numberOfRows;
}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"default"];
    Search *search = [self.fetchedResultsController objectAtIndexPath:indexPath];
    cell.textLabel.text = search.query;
    return cell;
}

What I have tried:

• I tried to set the FetchedResultsController to nil and to reload the table view after the managed document has been finished opening (commented out code). This did not change anything.
• I have checked the UIManagedDocument variable, it contains the correct value.
• The underlying SQL data base contains valid values.

My Question

Do you have any idea or suggestion why the section count returned by my code is zero?

You need to call performFetch in your fetched results controller method.