Why can't NSFIleManager -fileExistsAtPath not find an existing file when path is correct?

Question

I know that the iOS Simulator is found in a different directory each time it is run; with that in mind, I have this code which gives me the directory of the Core Data sqlite files:

//  find current directory for saori.sqlite
NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
NSURL *documentDirectory = [[fileManager URLsForDirectory:NSLibraryDirectory inDomains:NSUserDomainMask]firstObject];
NSString *sqliteFilePath  = [[documentDirectory URLByAppendingPathComponent:@"Application Support/SalonBook/saori.sqlite"] absoluteString];
if ([fileManager fileExistsAtPath:sqliteFilePath])
    [MagicalRecord cleanUp];  //  set stack, etc to 'nil'
else  {
    NSLog(@"\n\n-->sqlite files not found");  // log message "unable to find sqlite files
    return;
}

This is the printout of the sqliteFilePath object:

Printing description of sqliteFilePath:
file:///Users/rolfmarsh/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/1EE69744-255A-45CD-88F1-63FEAD117B32/data/Containers/Data/Application/C8FF20F0-41E4-4F26-AB06-1F29936C2208/Library/Application%20Support/SalonBook/saori.sqlite

And this is the image of the file from Finder:

The problem is: I go to the sqliteFilePath and the saori.sqlite file is indeed there! Why is -fileExistsAtPath failing?

Answer 1

Because it is still a URL. A file path doesn't have a protocol, so the prefix of your path file:/// is invalid and can't be resolved. Since an invalid path doesn't contain any files, fileExistsAtPath: returns NO.

Not to worry though, instead of calling absoluteString on the URL object, you can just call path instead and it will return the path.