RLMRealm Class Reference
Inherits from | NSObject |
Declared in | RLMRealm.h RLMRealm.mm |
Overview
An RLMRealm instance (also referred to as “a realm”) represents a Realm database.
Realms can either be stored on disk (see [RLMRealm realmWithPath:]) or in memory (see [RLMRealm inMemoryRealmWithIdentifier:]).
RLMRealm instances are cached internally, and constructing equivalent RLMRealm
objects (with the same path or identifier) multiple times on a single thread
within a single iteration of the run loop will normally return the same
RLMRealm object. If you specifically want to ensure a RLMRealm object is
destroyed (for example, if you wish to open a realm, check some property, and
then possibly delete the realm file and re-open it), place the code which uses
the realm within an @autoreleasepool {}
and ensure you have no other
strong references to it.
Warning: RLMRealm instances are not thread safe and can not be shared across threads or dispatch queues. You must call this method on each thread you want to interact with the realm on. For dispatch queues, this means that you must call it in each block which is dispatched, as a queue is not guaranteed to run on a consistent thread.
Tasks
Creating & Initializing a Realm
-
+ defaultRealm
-
+ realmWithPath:
-
+ realmWithPath:readOnly:error:
-
+ realmWithPath:encryptionKey:readOnly:error:
-
+ setEncryptionKey:forRealmsAtPath:
-
+ inMemoryRealmWithIdentifier:
-
path
property -
readOnly
property -
schema
property
Default Realm Path
Receiving Notification when a Realm Changes
Writing to a Realm
-
– beginWriteTransaction
-
– commitWriteTransaction
-
– cancelWriteTransaction
-
– transactionWithBlock:
-
– refresh
-
autorefresh
property -
– writeCopyToPath:error:
-
– writeCopyToPath:encryptionKey:error:
-
– invalidate
Adding and Removing Objects from a Realm
-
– addObject:
-
– addObjects:
-
– addOrUpdateObject:
-
– addOrUpdateObjectsFromArray:
-
– deleteObject:
-
– deleteObjects:
-
– deleteAllObjects
-
+ setDefaultRealmSchemaVersion:withMigrationBlock:
-
+ setSchemaVersion:forRealmAtPath:withMigrationBlock:
-
+ schemaVersionAtPath:error:
-
+ schemaVersionAtPath:encryptionKey:error:
-
+ migrateRealmAtPath:
-
+ migrateRealmAtPath:encryptionKey:
Other Methods
Properties
autorefresh
Set to YES to automatically update this Realm when changes happen in other threads.
@property (nonatomic) BOOL autorefresh
Discussion
If set to YES (the default), changes made on other threads will be reflected in this Realm on the next cycle of the run loop after the changes are committed. If set to NO, you must manually call refresh on the Realm to update it to get the latest version.
Even with this enabled, you can still call refresh at any time to update the Realm before the automatic refresh would occur.
Notifications are sent when a write transaction is committed whether or not this is enabled.
Disabling this on an RLMRealm
without any strong references to it will not
have any effect, and it will switch back to YES the next time the RLMRealm
object is created. This is normally irrelevant as it means that there is
nothing to refresh (as persisted RLMObject
s, RLMArray
s, and RLMResults
have strong
references to the containing RLMRealm
), but it means that setting
RLMRealm.
defaultRealm.auto
refresh = NO
in
application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:
and only later storing Realm
objects will not work.
Defaults to YES.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
path
Path to the file where this Realm is persisted.
@property (nonatomic, readonly) NSString *path
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
readOnly
Indicates if this Realm was opened in read-only mode.
@property (nonatomic, readonly, getter=isReadOnly) BOOL readOnly
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
schema
The RLMSchema used by this RLMRealm.
@property (nonatomic, readonly) RLMSchema *schema
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
Class Methods
defaultRealm
Obtains an instance of the default Realm.
+ (instancetype)defaultRealm
Return Value
The default RLMRealm
instance for the current thread.
Discussion
The default Realm is used by the RLMObject
class methods
which do not take a RLMRealm
parameter, but is otherwise not special. The
default Realm is persisted as default.realm under the Documents directory of
your Application on iOS, and in your application’s Application Support
directory on OS X.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
defaultRealmPath
Returns the location of the default Realm as a string.
+ (NSString *)defaultRealmPath
Return Value
Location of the default Realm.
Discussion
~/Application Support/{bundle ID}/default.realm
on OS X.
default.realm
in your application’s documents directory on iOS.
See Also
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
inMemoryRealmWithIdentifier:
Obtains an RLMRealm
instance for an un-persisted in-memory Realm. The identifier
used to create this instance can be used to access the same in-memory Realm from
multiple threads.
+ (instancetype)inMemoryRealmWithIdentifier:(NSString *)identifier
Parameters
- identifier
A string used to identify a particular in-memory Realm.
Return Value
An RLMRealm
instance.
Discussion
Because in-memory Realms are not persisted, you must be sure to hold on to a
reference to the RLMRealm
object returned from this for as long as you want
the data to last. Realm’s internal cache of RLMRealm
s will not keep the
in-memory Realm alive across cycles of the run loop, so without a strong
reference to the RLMRealm
a new Realm will be created each time. Note that
RLMObject
s, RLMArray
s, and RLMResults
that refer to objects persisted in a Realm have a
strong reference to the relevant RLMRealm
, as do RLMNotifcationToken
s.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
migrateRealmAtPath:
Performs the registered migration block on a Realm at the given path.
+ (NSError *)migrateRealmAtPath:(NSString *)realmPath
Parameters
- realmPath
The path of the Realm to migrate.
Return Value
The error that occurred while applying the migration if any.
Discussion
This method is called automatically when opening a Realm for the first time and does not need to be called explicitly. You can choose to call this method to control exactly when and how migrations are performed.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
migrateRealmAtPath:encryptionKey:
Performs the registered migration block on an encrypted Realm at the given path.
+ (NSError *)migrateRealmAtPath:(NSString *)realmPath encryptionKey:(NSData *)key
Return Value
The error that occurred while applying the migration, if any.
Discussion
As migrateRealmAtPath:
, but for encrypted realms.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
realmWithPath:
Obtains an RLMRealm
instance persisted at a specific file path.
+ (instancetype)realmWithPath:(NSString *)path
Parameters
- path
Path to the file you want the data saved in.
Return Value
An RLMRealm
instance.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
realmWithPath:encryptionKey:readOnly:error:
Obtains an RLMRealm
instance persisted to an encrypted file.
+ (instancetype)realmWithPath:(NSString *)path encryptionKey:(NSData *)key readOnly:(BOOL)readonly error:(NSError **)error
Parameters
- path
Path to the file you want the data saved in.
- key
64-byte key to use to encrypt the data.
- readonly
BOOL indicating if this Realm is read-only (must use for read-only files)
- error
If an error occurs, upon return contains an
NSError
object that describes the problem. If you are not interested in possible errors, pass inNULL
.
Return Value
An encrypted RLMRealm
instance.
Discussion
The on-disk storage for encrypted Realms are encrypted using AES256+HMAC-SHA2, but otherwise they behave like normal persisted Realms.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
realmWithPath:readOnly:error:
Obtains an RLMRealm
instance with persistence to a specific file path with
options.
+ (instancetype)realmWithPath:(NSString *)path readOnly:(BOOL)readonly error:(NSError **)error
Parameters
- path
Path to the file you want the data saved in.
- readonly
BOOL indicating if this Realm is read-only (must use for read-only files)
- error
If an error occurs, upon return contains an
NSError
object that describes the problem. If you are not interested in possible errors, pass inNULL
.
Return Value
An RLMRealm
instance.
Discussion
Like realmWithPath:
, but with the ability to open read-only realms and get
errors as an NSError
inout parameter rather than exceptions.
Warning: Read-only Realms do not support changes made to the file while the
RLMRealm
exists. This means that you cannot open a Realm as both read-only
and read-write at the same time. Read-only Realms should normally only be used
on files which cannot be opened in read-write mode, and not just for enforcing
correctness in code that should not need to write to the Realm.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
schemaVersionAtPath:encryptionKey:error:
+ (NSUInteger)schemaVersionAtPath:(NSString *)realmPath encryptionKey:(NSData *)key error:(NSError **)error
Parameters
- realmPath
Path to a Realm file
- key
64-byte encryption key.
- error
If an error occurs, upon return contains an
NSError
object that describes the problem. If you are not interested in possible errors, pass inNULL
.
Return Value
The version of the Realm at realmPath
or RLMNotVersioned if the version cannot be read.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
schemaVersionAtPath:error:
+ (NSUInteger)schemaVersionAtPath:(NSString *)realmPath error:(NSError **)error
Parameters
- realmPath
Path to a Realm file
- error
If an error occurs, upon return contains an
NSError
object that describes the problem. If you are not interested in possible errors, pass inNULL
.
Return Value
The version of the Realm at realmPath
or RLMNotVersioned if the version cannot be read.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
setDefaultRealmPath:
+ (void)setDefaultRealmPath:(NSString *)defaultRealmPath
Parameters
- defaultRealmPath
The path to use for the default Realm.
See Also
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
setDefaultRealmSchemaVersion:withMigrationBlock:
Specify a schema version and an associated migration block which is applied when opening the default Realm with an old schema version.
+ (void)setDefaultRealmSchemaVersion:(NSUInteger)version withMigrationBlock:(RLMMigrationBlock)block
Parameters
- version
The current schema version.
- block
The block which migrates the Realm to the current version.
Return Value
The error that occurred while applying the migration, if any.
Discussion
Before you can open an existing RLMRealm
which has a different on-disk schema
from the schema defined in your object interfaces you must provide a migration
block which converts from the disk schema to your current object schema. At the
minimum your migration block must initialize any properties which were added to
existing objects without defaults and ensure uniqueness if a primary key
property is added to an existing object.
You should call this method before accessing any RLMRealm
instances which
require migration. After registering your migration block Realm will call your
block automatically as needed.
Warning: Unsuccessful migrations will throw exceptions when the migration block is applied. This will happen in the following cases:
- The migration block was run and returns a schema version which is not higher than the previous schema version.
- A new property without a default was added to an object and not initialized during the migration. You are required to either supply a default value or to manually populate added properties during a migration.
See Also
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
setEncryptionKey:forRealmsAtPath:
Set the encryption key to use when opening Realms at a certain path.
+ (void)setEncryptionKey:(NSData *)key forRealmsAtPath:(NSString *)path
Parameters
- key
64-byte encryption key to use, or
nil
to unset.
- path
Realm path to set the encryption key for.
Discussion
This can be used as an alternative to explicitly passing the key to
realmWithPath:key:readOnly:error:
each time a Realm instance is
needed. The encryption key will be used any time a Realm is opened with
realmWithPath:
or defaultRealm
.
If you do not want Realm to hold on to your encryption keys any longer than
needed, then use realmWithPath:encryptionKey:readOnly:error:
rather than this
method.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
setSchemaVersion:forRealmAtPath:withMigrationBlock:
Specify a schema version and an associated migration block which is applied when opening the Realm at realmPath with an old schema version.
+ (void)setSchemaVersion:(NSUInteger)version forRealmAtPath:(NSString *)realmPath withMigrationBlock:(RLMMigrationBlock)block
Parameters
- version
The current schema version.
- block
The block which migrates the Realm to the current version.
Return Value
The error that occurred while applying the migration, if any.
See Also
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
Instance Methods
addNotificationBlock:
Add a notification handler for changes in this RLMRealm.
- (RLMNotificationToken *)addNotificationBlock:(RLMNotificationBlock)block
Parameters
- block
A block which is called to process RLMRealm notifications.
Return Value
A token object which can later be passed to removeNotification:
to remove this notification.
Discussion
The block has the following definition:
typedef void(^RLMNotificationBlock)(NSString *notification, RLMRealm *realm);
It receives the following parameters:
NSString
*notification: The name of the incoming notification. See RLMRealmNotification for information on what notifications are sent.RLMRealm
*realm: The realm for which this notification occurred
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
addObject:
Adds an object to be persisted it in this Realm.
- (void)addObject:(RLMObject *)object
Parameters
- object
Object to be added to this Realm.
Discussion
Once added, this object can be retrieved using the objectsWhere:
selectors
on RLMRealm
and on subclasses of RLMObject
. When added, all linked (child)
objects referenced by this object will also be added to the Realm if they are
not already in it. If the object or any linked objects already belong to a
different Realm an exception will be thrown. Use
[RLMObject createInRealm:withObject]
to insert a copy of a persisted object
into a different Realm.
The object to be added must be valid and cannot have been previously deleted
from a Realm (i.e. isInvalidated
) must be false.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
addObjects:
Adds objects in the given array to be persisted it in this Realm.
- (void)addObjects:(id<NSFastEnumeration>)array
Parameters
- array
An enumerable object such as NSArray or RLMResults which contains objects to be added to this Realm.
Discussion
This is the equivalent of addObject:
except for an array of objects.
See Also
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
addOrUpdateObject:
Adds or updates an object to be persisted it in this Realm. The object provided must have a designated primary key. If no objects exist in the RLMRealm instance with the same primary key value, the object is inserted. Otherwise, the existing object is updated with any changed values.
- (void)addOrUpdateObject:(RLMObject *)object
Parameters
- object
Object to be added or updated.
Discussion
As with addObject:
, the object cannot already be persisted in a different
Realm. Use [RLMObject createOrUpdateInRealm:withValue:]
to copy values to
a different Realm.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
addOrUpdateObjectsFromArray:
Adds or updates objects in the given array to be persisted it in this Realm.
- (void)addOrUpdateObjectsFromArray:(id)array
Parameters
- array
NSArray
,RLMArray
, orRLMResults
ofRLMObject
s (or subclasses) to be added to this Realm.
Discussion
This is the equivalent of addOrUpdateObject:
except for an array of objects.
See Also
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
beginWriteTransaction
Begins a write transaction in an RLMRealm
.
- (void)beginWriteTransaction
Discussion
Only one write transaction can be open at a time. Write transactions cannot be
nested, and trying to begin a write transaction on a RLMRealm
which is
already in a write transaction with throw an exception. Calls to
beg
inWriteTransaction from
RLMRealm
instances in other threads will block
until the current write transaction completes.
Before beginning the write transaction, beg
inWriteTransaction updates the
RLMRealm
to the latest Realm version, as if refresh was called, and
generates notifications if applicable. This has no effect if the RLMRealm
was already up to date.
It is rarely a good idea to have write transactions span multiple cycles of
the run loop, but if you do wish to do so you will need to ensure that the
RLMRealm
in the write transaction is kept alive until the write transaction
is committed.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
cancelWriteTransaction
Revert all writes made in the current write transaction and end the transaction.
- (void)cancelWriteTransaction
Discussion
This rolls back all objects in the Realm to the state they were in at the beginning of the write transaction, and then ends the transaction.
This restores the data for deleted objects, but does not re-validated deleted
accessor objects. Any RLMObject
s which were added to the Realm will be
invalidated rather than switching back to standalone objects.
Given the following code:
ObjectType *oldObject = [[ObjectType objectsWhere:@"..."] firstObject];
ObjectType *newObject = [[ObjectType alloc] init];
[realm beginWriteTransaction];
[realm addObject:newObject];
[realm deleteObject:oldObject];
[realm cancelWriteTransaction];
Both oldObject
and newObject
will return YES
for isInvalidated
,
but re-running the query which provided oldObject
will once again return
the valid object.
Calling this when not in a write transaction will throw an exception.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
commitWriteTransaction
Commits all writes operations in the current write transaction.
- (void)commitWriteTransaction
Discussion
After this is called the RLMRealm
reverts back to being read-only.
Calling this when not in a write transaction will throw an exception.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
compact
Replaces all string columns in this Realm with a string enumeration column and compacts the database file.
- (BOOL)compact
Return Value
YES if the compaction succeeded.
Discussion
Cannot be called from a write transaction.
Compaction will not occur if other RLMRealm
instances exist.
While compaction is in progress, attempts by other threads or processes to open the database will wait.
Be warned that resource requirements for compaction is proportional to the amount of live data in the database.
Compaction works by writing the database contents to a temporary database file and then replacing
the database with the temporary one. The name of the temporary file is formed by appending
.tmp_compaction_space
to the name of the database.
Declared In
RLMRealm.mm
deleteObject:
Delete an object from this Realm.
- (void)deleteObject:(RLMObject *)object
Parameters
- object
Object to be deleted from this Realm.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
deleteObjects:
Delete an NSArray
, RLMArray
, or RLMResults
of objects from this Realm.
- (void)deleteObjects:(id)array
Parameters
- array
RLMArray
,NSArray
, orRLMResults
ofRLMObject
s to be deleted.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
invalidate
Invalidate all RLMObjects and RLMResults read from this Realm.
- (void)invalidate
Discussion
An RLMRealm holds a read lock on the version of the data accessed by it, so that changes made to the Realm on different threads do not modify or delete the data seen by this RLMRealm. Calling this method releases the read lock, allowing the space used on disk to be reused by later write transactions rather than growing the file. This method should be called before performing long blocking operations on a background thread on which you previously read data from the Realm which you no longer need.
All RLMObject
, RLMResults
and RLMArray
instances obtained from this
RLMRealm
on the current thread are invalidated, and can not longer be used.
The RLMRealm
itself remains valid, and a new read transaction is implicitly
begun the next time data is read from the Realm.
Calling this method multiple times in a row without reading any data from the Realm, or before ever reading any data from the Realm is a no-op. This method cannot be called on a read-only Realm.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
refresh
Update an RLMRealm
and outstanding objects to point to the most recent data for this RLMRealm
.
- (BOOL)refresh
Return Value
Whether the realm had any updates. Note that this may return YES even if no data has actually changed.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
removeNotification:
Remove a previously registered notification handler using the token returned
from addNotificationBlock:
- (void)removeNotification:(RLMNotificationToken *)notificationToken
Parameters
- notificationToken
The token returned from
addNotificationBlock:
corresponding to the notification block to remove.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
transactionWithBlock:
Helper to perform a block within a transaction.
- (void)transactionWithBlock:(void ( ^ ) ( void ))block
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
writeCopyToPath:encryptionKey:error:
Write an encrypted and compacted copy of the RLMRealm to the given path.
- (BOOL)writeCopyToPath:(NSString *)path encryptionKey:(NSData *)key error:(NSError **)error
Parameters
- path
Path to save the Realm to.
- key
64-byte encryption key to encrypt the new file with
- error
On input, a pointer to an error object. If an error occurs, this pointer is set to an actual error object containing the error information. You may specify nil for this parameter if you do not want the error information.
Return Value
YES if the realm was copied successfully. Returns NO if an error occurred.
Discussion
The destination file cannot already exist.
Note that if this is called from within a write transaction it writes the current data, and not data when the last write transaction was committed.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h
writeCopyToPath:error:
Write a compacted copy of the RLMRealm to the given path.
- (BOOL)writeCopyToPath:(NSString *)path error:(NSError **)error
Parameters
- path
Path to save the Realm to.
- error
On input, a pointer to an error object. If an error occurs, this pointer is set to an actual error object containing the error information. You may specify nil for this parameter if you do not want the error information.
Return Value
YES if the realm was copied successfully. Returns NO if an error occurred.
Discussion
The destination file cannot already exist.
Note that if this is called from within a write transaction it writes the current data, and not data when the last write transaction was committed.
Declared In
RLMRealm.h