iOS Documents Path: Use NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains or NSFileManager?

Question

Until now, I've been using the following to initialize my NSPersistentStoreCoordinator's db path:

[NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, true) lastObject];

However, Xcode now auto-populates my app delegate with a method

(NSURL *)applicationDocumentsDirectory:

which returns:

[[[NSFileManager defaultManager] URLsForDirectory:NSDocumentDirectory inDomains:NSUserDomainMask] lastObject];

Are there benefits or drawbacks to either one or are they just two ways of doing the exact same thing?

Answer 1

Using NSFileManager is the preferred way as written in the Docs: Foundation Functions Reference (NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains)

You should consider using the NSFileManager methods URLsForDirectory:inDomains: and URLForDirectory:inDomain:appropriateForURL:create:error:. which return URLs, which are the preferred format.

I don't know if there are any real drawbacks when using NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains to determine the URL to your documents directory. I would recommend to use NSFileManager and it's method as this is the quasi-convenient way.