How to get contacts detail of iphone and make CSV file of that contact

Question

I want to get contact details in an iPhone with information like First Name, Last Name, Phone Number, Phone Number Type, Email Address, Email Address Type etc..

Can anyone help me with that?

I want to make a .csv file out of the contact details in a particular iPhone. I want to fetch iPhone address book data.

Answer 1

Following is the code to get all informations of iPhone contact book...

    -(void)collectContacts
    {
        NSMutableDictionary *myAddressBook = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
        ABAddressBookRef addressBook = ABAddressBookCreate();
        CFArrayRef people  = ABAddressBookCopyArrayOfAllPeople(addressBook);
        for(int i = 0;i<ABAddressBookGetPersonCount(addressBook);i++)
        {
            ABRecordRef ref = CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(people, i);

            // Get First name, Last name, Prefix, Suffix, Job title 
            NSString *firstName = (NSString *)ABRecordCopyValue(ref,kABPersonFirstNameProperty);
            NSString *lastName = (NSString *)ABRecordCopyValue(ref,kABPersonLastNameProperty);
            NSString *prefix = (NSString *)ABRecordCopyValue(ref,kABPersonPrefixProperty);
            NSString *suffix = (NSString *)ABRecordCopyValue(ref,kABPersonSuffixProperty);
            NSString *jobTitle = (NSString *)ABRecordCopyValue(ref,kABPersonJobTitleProperty);

            [myAddressBook setObject:firstName forKey:@"firstName"];
            [myAddressBook setObject:lastName forKey:@"lastName"];
            [myAddressBook setObject:prefix forKey:@"prefix"];
            [myAddressBook setObject:suffix forKey:@"suffix"];
            [myAddressBook setObject:jobTitle forKey:@"jobTitle"];

            NSMutableArray *arPhone = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
            ABMultiValueRef phones = ABRecordCopyValue(ref, kABPersonPhoneProperty);
            for(CFIndex j = 0; j < ABMultiValueGetCount(phones); j++)
            {       
                CFStringRef phoneNumberRef = ABMultiValueCopyValueAtIndex(phones, j);   
                NSString *phoneLabel =(NSString*) ABAddressBookCopyLocalizedLabel (ABMultiValueCopyLabelAtIndex(phones, j));
                NSString *phoneNumber = (NSString *)phoneNumberRef; 
                NSMutableDictionary *temp = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
                [temp setObject:phoneNumber forKey:@"phoneNumber"];
                [temp setObject:phoneLabel forKey:@"phoneNumber"];
                [arPhone addObject:temp];
                [temp release];
            }
            [myAddressBook setObject:arPhone forKey:@"Phone"];
            [arPhone release];            

            CFStringRef address;
            CFStringRef label;
            ABMutableMultiValueRef multi = ABRecordCopyValue(ref, kABPersonAddressProperty);    
            for (CFIndex i = 0; i < ABMultiValueGetCount(multi); i++) 
            {           
                label = ABMultiValueCopyLabelAtIndex(multi, i);
                CFStringRef readableLabel = ABAddressBookCopyLocalizedLabel(label);             
                address = ABMultiValueCopyValueAtIndex(multi, i);   
                CFRelease(address);
                CFRelease(label);
            } 

            ABMultiValueRef emails = ABRecordCopyValue(ref, kABPersonEmailProperty);
            NSMutableArray *arEmail = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
            for(CFIndex idx = 0; idx < ABMultiValueGetCount(emails); idx++)
            {
                CFStringRef emailRef = ABMultiValueCopyValueAtIndex(emails, idx);
                NSString *strLbl = (NSString*) ABAddressBookCopyLocalizedLabel (ABMultiValueCopyLabelAtIndex (emails, idx));
                NSString *strEmail_old = (NSString*)emailRef;
                NSMutableDictionary *temp = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
                [temp setObject:strEmail_old forKey:@"strEmail_old"];
                [temp setObject:strLbl forKey:@"strLbl"];
                [arEmail addObject:temp];
                [temp release];
            }
            [myAddressBook setObject:arEmail forKey:@"Email"];
            [arEmail release];
        }
        [self createCSV:myAddressBook];
    }

    -(void) createCSV :(NSMutableDictionary*)arAddressData
    {   
        NSMutableString *stringToWrite = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];
        [stringToWrite appendString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@,",[arAddressData valueForKey:@"firstName"]]];
        [stringToWrite appendString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@,",[arAddressData valueForKey:@"lastName"]]];
        [stringToWrite appendString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@,",[arAddressData valueForKey:@"jobTitle"]]];
        //[stringToWrite appendString:@"fname, lname, title, company, phonetype1, value1,phonetype2,value,phonetype3,value3phonetype4,value4,phonetype5,value5,phonetype6,value6,phonetype7,value7,phonetype8,value8,phonetype9,value9,phonetype10,value10,email1type,email1value,email2type,email2value,email3type,email3‌​value,email4type,email4value,email5type,email5value,website1,webs‌​ite2,website3"]; 
        NSMutableArray *arPhone = (NSMutableArray*) [arAddressData valueForKey:@"Phone"];
        for(int i = 0 ;i<[arPhone count];i++)
        {
            NSMutableDictionary *temp = (NSMutableDictionary*) [arPhone objectAtIndex:i];
            [stringToWrite appendString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@,",[temp valueForKey:@"phoneNumber"]]];
            [stringToWrite appendString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@,",[temp valueForKey:@"phoneNumber"]]];
            [temp release];
        }
        NSArray *paths=NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory,NSUserDomainMask,YES);
        NSString *documentDirectory=[paths objectAtIndex:0];
        NSString *strBackupFileLocation = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@/%@", documentDirectory,@"ContactList.csv"];
        [stringToWrite writeToFile:strBackupFileLocation atomically:YES encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding error:nil];
    }

Answer 2

I used iApple's code above as a starting point and created a working version from it - this one just collects all address book entries in an array. As mentioned above the original iApple doesn't work, there's a few bugs in it. This one works, and was tested.

Note: This doesn't return any contacts that don't have a name set - you can remove that for your own code, I just did it because I only need contacts with names set, and NSMutableDictionary doesn't like nil entries (crashes).

In my own address book I have a few entries that are just an email - I am not sure how they got there, but it's certainly possible to have address book entries without a name. Keep that in mind when iterating over an address book.

I am using the full name as per Apple's recommendations - ABRecordCopyCompositeName returns a composite of first and last name in the order specified by the user.

Finally, I made this a static method and put it in a helper class.

This is for use with ARC!

// returns an array of dictionaries
// each dictionary has values: fullName, phoneNumbers, emails
// fullName is a string
// phoneNumbers is an array of strings
// emails is an array of strings
+ (NSArray *)collectAddressBookContacts {
    NSMutableArray *allContacts = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
    ABAddressBookRef addressBook = ABAddressBookCreate();
    CFArrayRef people  = ABAddressBookCopyArrayOfAllPeople(addressBook);
    for(int i = 0;i<ABAddressBookGetPersonCount(addressBook);i++)
    {
        NSMutableDictionary *aPersonDict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
        ABRecordRef ref = CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(people, i);
        NSString *fullName = (__bridge NSString *) ABRecordCopyCompositeName(ref);
        if (fullName) {
            [aPersonDict setObject:fullName forKey:@"fullName"];

            // collect phone numbers
            NSMutableArray *phoneNumbers = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
            ABMultiValueRef phones = ABRecordCopyValue(ref, kABPersonPhoneProperty);
            for(CFIndex j = 0; j < ABMultiValueGetCount(phones); j++) {
                NSString *phoneNumber = (__bridge NSString *) ABMultiValueCopyValueAtIndex(phones, j);
                [phoneNumbers addObject:phoneNumber];
            }
            [aPersonDict setObject:phoneNumbers forKey:@"phoneNumbers"];

            // collect emails - key "emails" will contain an array of email addresses
            ABMultiValueRef emails = ABRecordCopyValue(ref, kABPersonEmailProperty);
            NSMutableArray *emailAddresses = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
            for(CFIndex idx = 0; idx < ABMultiValueGetCount(emails); idx++) {
                NSString *email = (__bridge NSString *)ABMultiValueCopyValueAtIndex(emails, idx);
                [emailAddresses addObject:email];
            }
            [aPersonDict setObject:emailAddresses forKey:@"emails"];
            // if you want to collect any other info that's stored in the address book, it follows the same pattern.
            // you just need the right kABPerson.... property.

            [allContacts addObject:aPersonDict];
        } else {
            // Note: I have a few entries in my phone that don't have a name set
            // Example one could have just an email address in their address book.
        }
    }
    return allContacts;
}

Answer 3

First you will need to use the address book framework so this must be added to your Xcode project.

Next you will need to break the task down into a couple steps.

1) Get the people inside the address book

2) Create your .csv file. I'm assuming you know something about CSV file formatting using characters to separate fields and when to add return characters so you have a properly formatted file. This is probably left for another question thread if you need help with this.

3) Save your .csv file somewhere

1) To get an array of all people in the address book you would do something like the following. The reference documentation for ABAddressBook is here. It should be very helpful in helping you access the data.

ABAddressBook *sharedBook = [ABAddressBook sharedAddressBook];
NSArray *peopleList = [sharedBook people];

2) You will have to iterate through each of the people and build your overall csv data. Usually you would manually create the csv data in an NSString and then convert it to NSData and save the NSData to a file. This is not ideal if you are dealing with a really large set of data. If this is the case then you would probably want some code to write your csv data to the file in chunks so you can free memory as you go. For simplicity sake my code just shows you creating the full file then saving the whole works.

NSString *csvString = @"";
for(ABPerson *aPerson in peopleList) {
  //Do something here to write each property you want to the CSV file.
  csvString = [csvString stringByAppendingFormat:@"'%@'," 
                                    [aPerson valueForProperty:kABFirstNameProperty]];
}

NSData *csvData = [csvString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

3) Write you file to somewhere

//This is an example of writing your csv data to a file that will be saved in the application's sand box directory. 
//This file could be extracted using iTunes file sharing.

//Get the proper path to save the file
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *writablePath = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"my_file.csv"];

 //Actually write the data
 BOOL isSuccessful = [csvData writeToFile:fullPath atomically:NO];
 if(isSuccessful) {
     //Do something if the file was written
  } else {
    //Do something if there was an error writing the file
  }

Answer 4

See Adress Book API particulary Importing and Exporting Person and Group Records

chack also the Address Book Test example in this blog