Retrieve contacts sorted by Modified date iOS

Question

How can I retrieve all address book contacts which are sorted according to their modified date? i.e. Contact with the latest modified date should come earlier in the list.

Answer 1

As there is no way to directly sort according to the modification date of ABPerson here is something which I think works

- (NSArray *) getSortedContacts
{

    NSMutableArray * modificationDates = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
    NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
    ABAddressBookRef addressBook = ABAddressBookCreate();
    if(addressBook != nil)
    {
        CFIndex nPeople = ABAddressBookGetPersonCount(addressBook);
        if(nPeople > 0)
        {
            CFArrayRef allPeople = ABAddressBookCopyArrayOfAllPeople(addressBook);
            for (int index = 0; index < nPeople; ++index)
            {
                ABRecordRef person = CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(allPeople, index);
                NSNumber *contactID = [NSNumber numberWithInt:ABRecordGetRecordID(person)];
                NSDate *modificationDate = (NSDate*) ABRecordCopyValue(person, kABPersonModificationDateProperty);
                [modificationDates addObject:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjects:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:contactID,modificationDate, nil] forKeys:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"contactID",@"modificationDate", nil]]];
            }
            if(allPeople)
                CFRelease(allPeople);
            allPeople = nil;
        }
    }
    [pool drain];

    NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:@"modificationDate" ascending:TRUE];
    [modificationDates sortUsingDescriptors:[NSArray arrayWithObject:sortDescriptor]];

    return modificationDates;
}

when you get the sorted array, get the dictionary from the array and using the contactID and use it to get ABPerson object using this

ABRecordRef person = ABAddressBookGetPersonWithRecordID(addressbook, (ABRecordID) [[dict valueForKey:@"contactID"] intValue]);

Hope this will help you