How to remove parentheses from array element

Question

I have an iOS app that uses Core Data to persist information retrieved from a server. I use a basic fetch request to grab all the managedObjects for a given entity. The managedObjects are put into an array which I use to populate a tableViewController. Each cell in the table has a UITextField that I am trying to put the information into. I can get the data into the text field but each element comes with parentheses around them. How can I get rid of these and just show the text?

Here is the fetch request:

NSManagedObjectContext *moc = self.managedObjectContext;
NSEntityDescription *entityDescription = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"UserInfo" inManagedObjectContext:moc];
NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
[request setEntity:entityDescription];    
NSArray *objects = [moc executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];

Here is what I am using to populate the text fields:

self.middleNameField.text = [[objects valueForKey:@"firstName"] description];
self.middleNameField.text = [[objects valueForKey:@"middleName"] description];
self.lastNameField.text = [[objects valueForKey:@"lastName"] description];

Here is what the response looks like

This question has been asked a few times but all seem to be looking to display all contents of the array at once rather than a particular element. Some recommend the method below.

self.firstNameField.text = [[[objects valueForKey:@"firstName"] stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"(" withString:@""]description];

But I get this exception error.

-[__NSArrayI stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:withString:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance

Could someone point me in the right direction on this? I realize I may be going about this all the wrong way. Don't hesitate to recommend a better method to accomplish the same task. Snippets Really Help!

Answer 1

Your code returns an array because you are asking an array for valueForKey

[objects valueForKey:@"firstName"]

I would suggest this:

NSArray *objects = [moc executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];  
NSManagedObject *object = [objects lastObject];
if (object) {
  self.middleNameField.text = [object valueForKey:@"firstName"];
  self.middleNameField.text = [[object valueForKey:@"middleName"];
  self.lastNameField.text = [[object valueForKey:@"lastName"];
}

You may want to set those fields to @"" if the objects array is empty. Depends on whether they could have been populated before.

I'm also not a fan of using NSManagedObject *object if you can use the proper subclass generated for your model. Assuming that the class in question is Person

Person *person = [objects lastObject];
if (person) {
  self.middleNameField.text = person.firstName;