How to apply the type to a NSFetchRequest instance?

The simplest structure I found that works in 3.0 is as follows:

let request = NSFetchRequest<Country>(entityName: "Country")

where the data entity Type is Country.

When trying to create a Core Data BatchDeleteRequest, however, I found that this definition does not work and it seems that you'll need to go with the form:

let request: NSFetchRequest<NSFetchRequestResult> = Country.fetchRequest()

even though the ManagedObject and FetchRequestResult formats are supposed to be equivalent.

Here are some generic CoreData methods that might answer your question:

import Foundation
import Cocoa

func addRecord<T: NSManagedObject>(_ type : T.Type) -> T
{
    let entityName = T.description()
    let context = app.managedObjectContext
    let entity = NSEntityDescription.entity(forEntityName: entityName, in: context)
    let record = T(entity: entity!, insertInto: context)
    return record
}

func recordsInTable<T: NSManagedObject>(_ type : T.Type) -> Int
{
    let recs = allRecords(T.self)
    return recs.count
}


func allRecords<T: NSManagedObject>(_ type : T.Type, sort: NSSortDescriptor? = nil) -> [T]
{
    let context = app.managedObjectContext
    let request = T.fetchRequest()
    do
    {
        let results = try context.fetch(request)
        return results as! [T]
    }
    catch
    {
        print("Error with request: \(error)")
        return []
    }
}

func query<T: NSManagedObject>(_ type : T.Type, search: NSPredicate?, sort: NSSortDescriptor? = nil, multiSort: [NSSortDescriptor]? = nil) -> [T]
{
    let context = app.managedObjectContext
    let request = T.fetchRequest()
    if let predicate = search
    {
        request.predicate = predicate
    }
    if let sortDescriptors = multiSort
    {
        request.sortDescriptors = sortDescriptors
    }
    else if let sortDescriptor = sort
    {
        request.sortDescriptors = [sortDescriptor]
    }

    do
    {
        let results = try context.fetch(request)
        return results as! [T]
    }
    catch
    {
        print("Error with request: \(error)")
        return []
    }
}


func deleteRecord(_ object: NSManagedObject)
{
    let context = app.managedObjectContext
    context.delete(object)
}

func deleteRecords<T: NSManagedObject>(_ type : T.Type, search: NSPredicate? = nil)
{
    let context = app.managedObjectContext

    let results = query(T.self, search: search)
    for record in results
    {
        context.delete(record)
    }
}

func saveDatabase()
{
    let context = app.managedObjectContext

    do
    {
        try context.save()
    }
    catch
    {
        print("Error saving database: \(error)")
    }
}

Assuming that there is a NSManagedObject setup for Contact like this:

class Contact: NSManagedObject
{
    @NSManaged var contactNo: Int
    @NSManaged var contactName: String
}

These methods can be used in the following way:

let name = "John Appleseed"

let newContact = addRecord(Contact.self)
newContact.contactNo = 1
newContact.contactName = name

let contacts = query(Contact.self, search: NSPredicate(format: "contactName == %@", name))
for contact in contacts
{
    print ("Contact name = \(contact.contactName), no = \(contact.contactNo)")
}

deleteRecords(Contact.self, search: NSPredicate(format: "contactName == %@", name))

recs = recordsInTable(Contact.self)
print ("Contacts table has \(recs) records")

saveDatabase()

I think i got it working by doing this:

let request:NSFetchRequest<NSFetchRequestResult> = NSFetchRequest(entityName: "Level")

at least it saves and loads data from DataBase.

But it feels like it is not a proper solution, but it works for now.

let request: NSFetchRequest<NSFetchRequestResult> = Level.fetchRequest()

or

let request: NSFetchRequest<Level> = Level.fetchRequest()

depending which version you want.

You have to specify the generic type because otherwise the method call is ambiguous.

The first version is defined for NSManagedObject, the second version is generated automatically for every object using an extension, e.g:

extension Level {
    @nonobjc class func fetchRequest() -> NSFetchRequest<Level> {
        return NSFetchRequest<Level>(entityName: "Level");
    }

    @NSManaged var timeStamp: NSDate?
}

The whole point is to remove the usage of String constants.