ABRecordCopyValue and ABPropertyID crash

Question

I'm trying to retrieve data from the iPhone address book and I have some problems.

First of all, I have an array of all contacts (self.allContacts):

ABAddressBookRef abRef = ABAddressBookCreate();     
self.allContacts = (NSMutableArray*)ABAddressBookCopyArrayOfAllPeople(abRef);

I also have an array of all properties (each property as string) called self.allKeys.

The crash occurs when I try to get the properties using a property from self.allKeys:

NSString *currentRecord = [[NSString alloc] init];
ABRecordRef currentRecordRef;
ABPropertyID currentFieldProperty;

currentRecordRef =  (ABRecordRef)[self.allContacts objectAtIndex:i];
currentFieldProperty = (ABPropertyID)[self.allKeys objectAtIndex:j];

currentRecord = (NSString*)ABRecordCopyValue(currentRecordRef, currentFieldProperty);                                   

The problem is that passing currentFieldProperty to ABRecordCopyValue causes a crash.

---

• self.allContacts is an array of all contacts
• self.allKeys is an array of all properties (each property as string)

When trying to retrieve a single property from ABRecordCopyValue it causes an EXC_BAD_ACCESS crash.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Several problems:

• ABPropertyID is not an object type. (ABPropertyID)[self.allKeys objectAtIndex:j] is clearly wrong. I'm not sure how it's even possible to be "an array of all properties (each property as string)". What string are you talking about? Where did you get this string from? If you are talking about the string of the name of the property e.g. @"kABPersonEmailProperty" then it would be pretty much impossible to get the value of it from that.
• ABPropertyID values like kABPersonEmailProperty are not constants. They are variables, and they only seem to be initialized after you initialize an address book for the first time.

Answer 2

Set NSZombieEnabled, MallocStackLogging, and guard malloc in the debugger. Then, when your App crashes, type this in the gdb console:

(gdb) info malloc-history 0x543216

Replace 0x543216 with the address of the object that caused the crash, and you will get a much more useful stack trace and it should help you pinpoint the exact line in your code that is causing the problem.

---

 - More thoughts -

If self.allKeys is indeed

"an array of all properties (each property as string)"

then you should probably get the intValue of the array object (property) since an ABPropertyID is just a typedef int32_t. Something like:

currentFieldProperty = (ABPropertyID)[[self.allKeys objectAtIndex:j] intValue];
ABRecordCopyValue(currentRecordRef, currentFieldProperty)

But we would need to see the values in self.allKeys or how it is populated to be sure.

From ABRecordRef Reference and CFTypeRef Reference

ABRecordCopyValue - Returns the value of a record property.

    CFTypeRef ABRecordCopyValue (
       ABRecordRef record,
       ABPropertyID property
    );

Parameters
record - The record containing the property in question.
property - The property of record whose value is being returned.

Return Value
The value of property in record.

And:

ABPropertyID - Integer that identifies a record property.
typedef int32_t ABPropertyID;

---

 - And more troubleshooting ideas -

If the above is not the case, then your crash may be caused when you cast CFTypeRef to NSString * in (NSString*)ABRecordCopyValue(currentRecordRef, currentFieldProperty) so here is a little helper function that might solve that:

- (NSString*)stringValueForCFType:(CFTypeRef)cfValue {
    NSString *stringValue = nil;
    if (!cfValue) return nil;
    CFTypeID cfType = CFGetTypeID(cfValue);
    if (cfType == CFStringGetTypeID()) {
        stringValue = [[(id)CFMakeCollectable(cfValue) retain] autorelease];
    } else if (cfType == CFURLGetTypeID()) {
        stringValue = [(NSURL*)cfValue absoluteString];
    } else if (cfType == CFNumberGetTypeID()) {
        stringValue = [(NSNumber*)cfValue stringValue];
    } else if (cfType == CFNullGetTypeID()) {
        stringValue = [NSString string];
    } else if (cfType == AXUIElementGetTypeID()) {
        stringValue = [[GTMAXUIElement elementWithElement:cfValue] description];
    } else if (cfType == AXValueGetTypeID()) {
        stringValue = [self stringValueForAXValue:cfValue];
    } else if (cfType == CFArrayGetTypeID()) {
        stringValue = [self stringValueForCFArray:cfValue];
    } else if (cfType == CFBooleanGetTypeID()) {
        stringValue = CFBooleanGetValue(cfValue) ? @"YES" : @"NO";
    } else {
        CFStringRef description = CFCopyDescription(cfValue);
        stringValue = [(id)CFMakeCollectable(description) autorelease];
  }
  return stringValue;       
}

Then do currentRecord = [self stringValueForCFType:ABRecordCopyValue(currentRecordRef, currentFieldProperty)]; and check to make sure self.allKeys has an object at index j and self.allContacts has an object at index i:

NSString *currentRecord = [[NSString alloc] init];
ABRecordRef currentRecordRef;
ABPropertyID currentFieldProperty;

if (self.allContacts.count > i) {
    currentRecordRef = (ABRecordRef)[self.allContacts objectAtIndex:i];    
    if (self.allKeys.count > j) {
        currentFieldProperty = (ABPropertyID)[self.allKeys objectAtIndex:j];
        currentRecord = [self stringValueForCFType:ABRecordCopyValue(currentRecordRef, currentFieldProperty)];
    } else {
        NSLog(@"self.allKeys has no value at index (%d): %@", j, [allKeys description]);
    }
} else {
    NSLog(@"self.allContacts has no value at index (%d): %@", i, [allContacts description]);
}

---

Edit (regarding the comments):

To convert string of property name to its int value, you need to create the following (this probably is not be the correct order that they need to be in, so NSLog them first to see what order they need to be in):

NSString * const ABPropertyID_toString[] = {
    @"kABPersonFirstNameProperty",
    @"kABPersonLastNameProperty",
    @"kABPersonMiddleNameProperty",
    @"kABPersonPrefixProperty",
    @"kABPersonSuffixProperty",        
    @"kABPersonNicknameProperty", 
    @"kABPersonFirstNamePhoneticProperty",
    @"kABPersonLastNamePhoneticProperty", 
    @"kABPersonMiddleNamePhoneticProperty", 
    @"kABPersonOrganizationProperty", 
    @"kABPersonJobTitleProperty", 
    @"kABPersonDepartmentProperty", 
    @"kABPersonEmailProperty", 
    @"kABPersonBirthdayProperty", 
    @"kABPersonNoteProperty", 
    @"kABPersonCreationDateProperty", 
    @"kABPersonModificationDateProperty", 
    @"kABPersonAddressProperty", 
    // ... etc
};

- (NSString *)ABPropertyIDToString:(ABPropertyID)propertyVal {
    return ABPropertyID_toString[propertyVal];
}

- (ABPropertyID)stringToABPropertyID:(NSString *)propertyString {
    int retVal;
    for(int i=0; i < sizeof(ABPropertyID_toString) - 1; ++i) {
        if([(NSString *)ABPropertyID_toString[i] isEqual:propertyString]) {
            retVal = i;
            break;
        }
    }
    return retVal;
}

Then pass stringToABPropertyID: the value from the array [self.allKeys objectAtIndex:j] and you will be returned an ABPropertyID:

currentFieldProperty = [self stringToABPropertyID:[self.allKeys objectAtIndex:j]];

Answer 3

I'm posting my earlier comment as an answer:

I would especially give thought to the value of currentFieldProperty - because it is taken out of a dictionary, it is an object but the function is supposed to receive an enumerated value. Maybe try

currentFieldProperty = (ABPropertyID)[[self.allKeys objectAtIndex:j] intValue];