NSFetchedResultsController not combining like sections

Question

I'm trying to use NSFetchedResultsController to display data in a table view. My data model has an array of users, each user has an array of categories, each category has an array of organizations, and each organization has an array of accounts. The table view displays data from a single user. Each row represents an organization belonging to the user, and the organizations are separated into sections, with each section containing the organizations belonging to a specific category. In my app delegate I populate my application with some dummy data, and NSFetchedResultsController displays that data fine. The problem is that when I try to add a new organization to an existing category the row is added but it is added to a new section containing only that row, as opposed to merging with the section that holds the rest of the organizations for that category.

Here is the code for my NSFetchedResults controller:

- (NSFetchedResultsController *)fetchedResultsController
{
if (_fetchedResultsController != nil) {
    return _fetchedResultsController;
}

NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"PKOrganization" inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];
[fetchRequest setEntity:entity];

// Set the batch size to a suitable number.
[fetchRequest setFetchBatchSize:20];

// Tell the fetch request to only retrieve the organizations from the proper user
[fetchRequest setPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"(category.user.name = '%@')", self.user.name]]];

// Sort the data
NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor1 = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"category.name" ascending:YES];
NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor2 = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"name" ascending:YES];
NSArray *sortDescriptors = @[sortDescriptor1,sortDescriptor2];
[fetchRequest setSortDescriptors:sortDescriptors];

// Edit the section name key path and cache name if appropriate.
// nil for section name key path means "no sections".
NSFetchedResultsController *aFetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:fetchRequest managedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext sectionNameKeyPath:@"category" cacheName:@"Master"];
aFetchedResultsController.delegate = self;
self.fetchedResultsController = aFetchedResultsController;

NSError *error = nil;
if (![self.fetchedResultsController performFetch:&error]) {
    // Replace this implementation with code to handle the error appropriately.
    // abort() causes the application to generate a crash log and terminate. You should not use this function in a shipping application, although it may be useful during development.
    NSLog(@"Unresolved error %@, %@", error, [error userInfo]);
    abort();
}

return _fetchedResultsController;
}

It might also be worth noting that I am able to tell that the data is added as expected. It just doesn't get displayed correctly.

Answer 1

Try changing this line

NSFetchedResultsController *aFetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:fetchRequest managedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext sectionNameKeyPath:@"category" cacheName:@"Master"];

To this:

NSFetchedResultsController *aFetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:fetchRequest managedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext sectionNameKeyPath:@"category.name" cacheName:@"Master"];

In my experience, I needed the sectionNameKeyPath to be exactly the same as the first sortDescriptor in order to get sections to work properly.