I'm trying to write a SUBQUERY for an NSPredicate. My problem is I don't have the query on hand for the predicate portion of the SUBQUERY. Is there a way to nest an NSPredicate inside the SUBQUERY?
For example this is what I have tried:
let ordersPredicate = NSPredicate()//some predicate passed in
//how do I use the ordersPredicate inside the subquery??
let subQueryPredicate = NSPredicate(format: "SUBQUERY(orders, $x,'%@').@count > 0", ordersPredicate.predicateFormat)
Update: I had to do a dirty workaround for now by executing the first predicate and doing an ANY IN query. Its lame :( because I'm executing the ordersPredicate elsewhere as well later in the pipeline..
let fetchRequest = NSFetchRequest()//blah
fetchRequest.predicate = orderPredicate
let orders = //execute fetch
let subQueryPredicate = NSPredicate(format: "SUBQUERY(orders, $x, ANY $x in %@).@count > 0", orders)
Thanks to some pointers from @Willeke I was able to come up with a solution.
public extension NSPredicate{
public func stringForSubQuery(prefix:String) -> String{
var predicateString = ""
if let predicate = self as? NSCompoundPredicate{
for (index, subPredicate) in predicate.subpredicates.enumerate(){
if let subPredicate = subPredicate as? NSComparisonPredicate{
predicateString = "\(predicateString) \(prefix)\(subPredicate.predicateFormat)"
}
else if let subPredicate = subPredicate as? NSCompoundPredicate{
predicateString = "\(predicateString) (\(subPredicate.stringForSubQuery(prefix)))"
}
//if its not the last predicate then append the operator string
if index < predicate.subpredicates.count - 1 {
predicateString = "\(predicateString) \(getPredicateOperatorString(predicate.compoundPredicateType))"
}
}
}
return predicateString
}
private func getPredicateOperatorString(predicateType: NSCompoundPredicateType) -> String{
switch(predicateType){
case .NotPredicateType: return "!"
case .AndPredicateType: return "&&"
case .OrPredicateType: return "||"
}
}
}
And here is the usage
let ordersPredicate = NSPredicate()//some predicate passed in
let ordersPredicateFormat = orderPredicate.stringForSubQuery("$x.")
let subQueryPredicate = NSPredicate(format: "SUBQUERY(orders, $x, \(ordersPredicateFormat)).@count > 0")