Core Data Transient Calculated Attributes

Question

I have an entity that contains lastName and firstName attributes. For reasons beyond the scope of this question, I want a fullName attribute that gets calculated as a concatenation of firstName + space + lastName.

Because this is purely a calculated value, with no need for redo/undo or any other of the more sophisticated aspects of transient attributes (merging, etc.), my gut tells me to just override the getter method to return said calculated value. Reading suggests that, if I do this, my only concern would be whether it's KVO compliant, which I can address by using keyPathsForValuesAffectingVolume to ensure changes to firstName or lastName trigger notifications for anyone observing on fullName.

Am I missing anything? I'm checking because I'm a beginner to this environment.

Answer 1

I'm also new to this, so I'm not completely sure about my answer, but as I understand it you are correct.

- (NSString *)fullName
{
    [self willAccessValueForKey:@"fullName"];
    NSString *tmp = [self primitiveFullName];
    [self didAccessValueForKey:@"fullName"];

    if (!tmp) {
        tmp = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ %@", [self firstName], [self lastName]];
        [self setPrimitiveFullName:tmp];
    }
    return tmp;
}

- (void)setFirstName:(NSString *)aFirstName
{
    [self willChangeValueForKey:@"firstName"];
    [self setPrimitiveFirstName:aFirstName];
    [self didChangeValueForKey:@"firstName"];

    [self setPrimitiveFullName:nil];
}

- (void)setLastName:(NSString *)aLastName
{
    [self willChangeValueForKey:@"lastName"];
    [self setPrimitiveLastName:aLastName];
    [self didChangeValueForKey:@"lastName"];

    [self setPrimitiveFullName:nil];
}

+ (NSSet *)keyPathsForValuesAffectingFullName
{
    return [NSSet setWithObjects:@"firstName", @"lastName", nil];
}