How to fetch contacts from AddressBook and store it in array in iOS 7?

Question

I am trying to fetch contacts from address book and then to store it in an array.I am not able to do this.I checked various posts on stack overflow and i am writing the same code but not able to do?

CFErrorRef error = NULL;
ABAddressBookRef addressBook = ABAddressBookCreateWithOptions(NULL, &error);
if (addressBook != nil) {
    NSLog(@"Succesful.");
    allContacts = (__bridge_transfer NSArray *)ABAddressBookCopyArrayOfAllPeople(addressBook);
    NSLog(@"allContacts.count = %d",[allContacts count]);}    allContact count is always zero

Answer 1

That might be possible because you are not Requesting Access to Contacts from user. Just add this to your code.

#import <AddressBookUI/AddressBookUI.h>

  // Request authorization to Address Book
  ABAddressBookRef addressBookRef = ABAddressBookCreateWithOptions(NULL, NULL);

  if (ABAddressBookGetAuthorizationStatus() == kABAuthorizationStatusNotDetermined) {
    ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion(addressBookRef, ^(bool granted, CFErrorRef error) {
      if (granted) {
          // First time access has been granted, add the contact
          [self _addContactToAddressBook];
      } else {
          // User denied access
          // Display an alert telling user the contact could not be added
      }
    });
  }
  else if (ABAddressBookGetAuthorizationStatus() == kABAuthorizationStatusAuthorized) {
    // The user has previously given access, add the contact
    [self _addContactToAddressBook];
  }
  else {
    // The user has previously denied access
    // Send an alert telling user to change privacy setting in settings app
  }

Answer 2

@property (nonatomic, assign) ABAddressBookRef addressBook;

// Check user permission

 -(void)requestAddressBookAccess
{
    ViewController * __weak weakSelf = self;

    ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion(self.addressBook, ^(bool granted, CFErrorRef error)
                                             {
                                                 if (granted)
                                                 {
                                                     dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
                                                         [weakSelf accessGrantedForAddressBook];

                                                     });
                                                 }
                                                 else{
                                                 }
                                             });
}

// Get all the contect

 -(void)accessGrantedForAddressBook{
    ABAddressBookRef addressBook = ABAddressBookCreate();
    CFArrayRef people = ABAddressBookCopyArrayOfAllPeople(addressBook);
    CFMutableArrayRef peopleMutable = CFArrayCreateMutableCopy(
                                                               kCFAllocatorDefault,
                                                               CFArrayGetCount(people),
                                                               people
                                                               );
    NSMutableArray *allNames = (__bridge NSMutableArray*)peopleMutable;
}