I use Core Data for an iPhone app.
There is "Flight" entity with a "start" and "duration" property.
The flights are listed on a paginated view, where I need to sum the duration per page and the duration rollup sum.
In native sqlite following solution works:
select sum(pg.zduration) from (select zduration,zstart from zflight order by zstart limit %i,%i) as pg",offset,limit
So on first page, with a page size of 5, I get duration sum and same rollup duration with offset=0 and limit=5.
On second page, I get the duration sum with offset=5 and limit=5. The rollup sum with offset=0 and limit=10.
And so on..
Now the Question:
How would I solve that with Core Data, NSExpression, NSExpressionDescription and NSFetchRequest instead of sqlite? Of course, I would not like to load all flight objects in memory...
So I am able to caculate the duration for all flights:
NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"Flight" inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];
[request setEntity:entity];
[request setResultType:NSDictionaryResultType];
NSSortDescriptor *startSortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:#"start"
ascending:YES];
NSArray *sortDescriptors = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:startSortDescriptor, nil];
[request setSortDescriptors:sortDescriptors];
request.fetchOffset=onPage*pageSize;//does not help, cause offset and limit are applied to the result
request.fetchLimit=pageSize;//does not help, cause offset and limit are applied to the result
NSExpression *keyPathExpression = [NSExpression expressionForKeyPath:#"duration"];
NSExpression *sumExpression = [NSExpression expressionForFunction:#"sum:" arguments:[NSArray arrayWithObject:keyPathExpression]];
// Create an expression description using the minExpression and returning a date.
NSExpressionDescription *expressionDescription1 = [[NSExpressionDescription alloc] init];
[expressionDescription1 setName:#"durationSum"];
[expressionDescription1 setExpression:sumExpression];
[expressionDescription1 setExpressionResultType:NSInteger64AttributeType];
[request setPropertiesToFetch:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:expressionDescription1,nil]];
// Execute the fetch.
NSError *error = nil;
NSArray *objects = [self.managedObjectContext executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];
if(error!=nil){
[NSException raise:#"Sum Page Duration failed" format:#"%# Error:%#", [[error userInfo] valueForKey:#"reason"],error];
}
if (objects!=nil && [objects count] > 0) {
return (NSNumber*)[[objects objectAtIndex:0] valueForKey:#"durationSum"];
}
return 0;
As you said, the limit and offset set on the fetch request are applied to the result and NSExpression won't work well in this case. You could operate on the returned objects, after they've been offset and limited by the fetch request, using a collection operator rather than NSExpression, e.g.:
NSNumber *durationSum = [objects valueForKeyPath:#"#sum.duration"];
Related
Is there a way to query NSDate in CoreData. For example if I want an entity with the highest NSDate value? I see that NSExpression "max:" only takes an NSNumber.
You can actually ask SQL for just that value, not the object with that value:
NSExpression *date = [NSExpression expressionForKeyPath:#"date"];
NSExpression *maxDate = [NSExpression expressionForFunction:#"max:"
arguments:[NSArray arrayWithObject:maxDate]];
NSExpressionDescription *d = [[[NSExpressionDescription alloc] init] autorelease];
[d setName:#"maxDate"];
[d setExpression:maxSalaryExpression];
[d setExpressionResultType:NSDateAttributeType];
[request setPropertiesToFetch:[NSArray arrayWithObject:d]];
NSError *error = nil;
NSArray *objects = [managedObjectContext executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];
if (objects == nil) {
// Handle the error.
} else {
if (0 < [objects count]) {
NSLog(#"Maximum date: %#", [[objects objectAtIndex:0] valueForKey:#"maxDate"]);
}
}
more detail under Fetching Managed Objects -> Fetching Specific Values in the CoreData documentation.
or
Perfomed a query, ordered on Date field DESCENDING, and using setFetchLim it:1.
Its not perfect, but at least it worked.
You can do this directly in SQLite-- without fetching everything and then filtering the result, and without the complexity of NSExpression.
To get the one object that has the max date, do something like (assuming entity name Entity and date attribute timeStamp):
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [NSFetchRequest fetchRequestWithEntityName:#"Event"];
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"timeStamp = self.#max.timeStamp"];
fetchRequest.predicate = predicate;
Do the fetch. You'll get (at most) one result, which will be the instance with the max date.
If you want to get just the date and not the entire managed object, add this before doing the fetch:
fetchRequest.resultType = NSDictionaryResultType;
fetchRequest.propertiesToFetch = #[ #"timeStamp" ];
you can get it with
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] initWithEntityName:#"tablename"];
fetchRequest.fetchLimit = 1;
fetchRequest.sortDescriptors = #[[NSSortDescriptor sortDescriptorWithKey:#"yourDate" ascending:NO]];
NSError *error = nil;
id person = [managedObjectContext executeFetchRequest:fetchRequest error:&error].firstObject;
For reference, the problem I'm trying to solve is efficiently finding and removing duplicates in a table that could have a lot of entries.
The table I am working with is called PersistedDay with a dayString object in it (it's a string. :-P). There are more columns that aren't relevant to this question. I'd like to find any PersistedDay's that have duplicates.
In SQL, this is one of the efficient ways you can do that (FYI, I can do this query on the CoreData backing SQLite DB):
SELECT ZDAYSTRING FROM ZPERSISTEDDAY GROUP BY ZDAYSTRING HAVING COUNT(ZDAYSTRING) > 1;
This returns ONLY the dayStrings that have duplicates and you can then get all of the fields for those objects by querying using the resulting day strings (you can use it as a sub query to do it all in one request).
NSFetchRequest seems to have all of the required pieces to do this too, but it doesn't quite seem to work. Here's what I tried to do:
NSManagedObjectContext *context = [self managedObjectContext];
NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"PersistedDay" inManagedObjectContext:context];
[request setEntity:entity];
NSPropertyDescription* dayStringProperty = entity.propertiesByName[#"dayString"];
request.propertiesToFetch = #[dayStringProperty];
request.propertiesToGroupBy = #[dayStringProperty];
request.havingPredicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat: #"dayString.#count > 1"];
request.resultType = NSDictionaryResultType;
NSArray *results = [context executeFetchRequest:request error:NULL];
That doesn't work. :-P If I try that I get an error "Unsupported function expression count:(dayString)" when trying to do the fetch. I don't think the dayString in "dayString.#count" even matters in that code above...but, I put it in for clarity (SQL count just operates on the grouped rows).
So, my question is: is this possible and, if so, what is the syntax to do it? I couldn't find anything in the CoreData docs to indicate how to do this.
I found one similar SO posts that I now unfortunately can't find again that was about running a count in a having clause (I don't think there was a group by). But, the poster gave up and did it a different way after not finding a solution. I'm hoping this is more explicit so maybe someone has an answer. :)
For reference, this is what I am doing for now that DOES work, but requires returning almost all the rows since there are very few duplicates in most cases:
NSManagedObjectContext *context = [self managedObjectContext];
NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"PersistedDay"
inManagedObjectContext:context];
[request setEntity:entity];
NSPropertyDescription* dayStringProperty = entity.propertiesByName[#"dayString"];
// Get the count of dayString...
NSExpression *keyPathExpression = [NSExpression expressionForKeyPath: #"dayString"]; // Does not really matter
NSExpression *countExpression = [NSExpression expressionForFunction: #"count:" arguments: [NSArray arrayWithObject:keyPathExpression]];
NSExpressionDescription *expressionDescription = [[NSExpressionDescription alloc] init];
[expressionDescription setName: #"dayStringCount"];
[expressionDescription setExpression: countExpression];
[expressionDescription setExpressionResultType: NSInteger32AttributeType];
request.propertiesToFetch = #[dayStringProperty, expressionDescription];
request.propertiesToGroupBy = #[dayStringProperty];
request.resultType = NSDictionaryResultType;
NSArray *results = [context executeFetchRequest:request error:NULL];
I then have to loop over the result and only return the results that have dayStringCount > 1. Which is what the having clause should do. :-P
NOTE: I know CoreData isn't SQL. :) Just would like to know if I can do the equivalent type of operation with the same efficiency as SQL.
Yes it is possible. You cannot reference count as key path, however you can reference it as variable. Just like in SQL. In my example I have cities created with duplicate names.
let fetchRequest = NSFetchRequest(entityName: "City")
let nameExpr = NSExpression(forKeyPath: "name")
let countExpr = NSExpressionDescription()
let countVariableExpr = NSExpression(forVariable: "count")
countExpr.name = "count"
countExpr.expression = NSExpression(forFunction: "count:", arguments: [ nameExpr ])
countExpr.expressionResultType = .Integer64AttributeType
fetchRequest.resultType = .DictionaryResultType
fetchRequest.sortDescriptors = [ NSSortDescriptor(key: "name", ascending: true) ]
fetchRequest.propertiesToGroupBy = [ cityEntity.propertiesByName["name"]! ]
fetchRequest.propertiesToFetch = [ cityEntity.propertiesByName["name"]!, countExpr ]
// filter out group result and return only groups that have duplicates
fetchRequest.havingPredicate = NSPredicate(format: "%# > 1", countVariableExpr)
Complete playground file at:
https://gist.github.com/pronebird/cca9777af004e9c91f9cd36c23cc821c
Best I can come up with is:
NSError* error;
NSManagedObjectContext* context = self.managedObjectContext;
NSEntityDescription* entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"Event" inManagedObjectContext:context];
// Construct a count group field
NSExpressionDescription* count = [NSExpressionDescription new];
count.name = #"count";
count.expression = [NSExpression expressionWithFormat:#"count:(value)"];
count.expressionResultType = NSInteger64AttributeType;
// Get list of all "value" fields (only)
NSPropertyDescription* value = [entity propertiesByName][#"value"];
NSFetchRequest* request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] initWithEntityName:#"Event"];
request.propertiesToFetch = #[ value, count];
request.propertiesToGroupBy = #[ value ];
request.resultType = NSDictionaryResultType;
NSArray* values = [context executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];
// Filter count > 1
values = [values filteredArrayUsingPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"count > 1"]];
// slice to get just the values
values = [values valueForKeyPath:#"value"];
But that's not really much different from what you're using.
The best way finding duplicates in Core Data depends on your data. According to Efficiently Importing Data and assuming that you have to import less than 1000 PersistedDays, I suggest this solution:
NSFetchRequest* fetchRequest = [NSFetchRequest new];
[fetchRequest setEntity:[NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"PersistedDay" inManagedObjectContext:myMOC]];
[fetchRequest setSortDescriptors:#[[NSSortDescriptor sortDescriptorWithKey:#"dayString" ascending:NO]]];
NSArray* persistedDays = [myMOC executeFetchRequest:fetchRequest error:nil];
for (NSUInteger i = persistedDays.count - 1; i > 0; --i) {
PersistedDay *currentDay = persistedDays[i];
PersistedDay *nextDay = persistedDays[i-1];
if ([currentDay.dayString isEqualToString:nextDay.dayString]) {
/* Do stuff/delete with currentDay */
}
}
For speed up can index dayString in Core Data.
You also can reduce the the data set if you remember a timestamp or a date of the last duplicate clean up:
[fetchRequest setPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"importDate > %#", lastDuplicateCleanUp];
I want to query my entity "DIncome" to sum the attribute "credit" But I only want entires that have their "daystamp" attribute equal to today. The following code gets me close but I don't understand how to finish this code in order to output the sum of credit DIncome attribute to a label on my view controller.
Heres what I got;
//Get today date
NSDate *dateSelect = [NSDate date];
//formate today date as day only "dd"
NSDateFormatter *dfdd = [[NSDateFormatter alloc]init];
[dfdd setDateFormat:#"dd"];
NSString *formattedDatedd = [dfdd stringFromDate:dateSelect];
//Fetchrequest
NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"DIncome" inManagedObjectContext:context];
[request setEntity:entity];
// Specify that the request should return dictionaries.
[request setResultType:NSDictionaryResultType];
// Create an expression for the key path.
NSExpression *keyPathExpression = [NSExpression expressionForKeyPath:#"credit"];
NSExpression *sumExpression = [NSExpression expressionForFunction:#"sum:" arguments:[NSArray arrayWithObject:keyPathExpression]];
// Create an expression description using the minExpression and returning a date.
NSExpressionDescription *expressionDescription = [[NSExpressionDescription alloc] init];
// The name is the key that will be used in the dictionary for the return value.
[expressionDescription setName:#"sumCredit"];
[expressionDescription setExpression:sumExpression];
[expressionDescription setExpressionResultType:NSDateAttributeType];
// Set the request's properties to fetch just the property represented by the expressions.
[request setPropertiesToFetch:[NSArray arrayWithObject:expressionDescription]];
// Execute the fetch.
NSError *error = nil;
NSArray *objects = [context executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];
if (objects == nil) {
// Handle the error.
}
else {
if ([objects count] > 0) {
NSLog(#"Credit Sum: %#", [[objects objectAtIndex:0] valueForKey:#"sumCredit"]);
self.dayDisplayLabel.text = sumExpression;
}
}
For the second part of the question I need to set the sum of the credit to my dayDisplayLabel
This is not working because its an incompatible pointer assigning NSString to NSExpression
self.dayDisplayLabel.text = sumExpression;
How do I make this right?
You can use [request setResultType:NSDictionaryResultType] with propertiesToFetch to retrieve only certain attributes of your managed objects. If you want to limit the recorded records, you can use NSPredicate (acts like the WHERE clause in a SQL statement).
Fetch requests return their results as arrays of managed objects. You can get attribute values from those objects. In your case you get an array of managed objects representing the DIncome entity type. If you subclassed NSManagedObject then these are instances of your subclass; if you didn't subclass then they're instances of NSManagedObject.
To get values of string attributes from these instances, use key-value coding. If your attribute were named "title", you'd get the string value of the first object with:
NSString *firstTitle = [mutableFetchResults[0] valueForKey:#"title"];
Get the values of any other attributes using similar code.
If you want the fetch request to only include a subset of the instances of DIncome, look into NSPredicate. You can use this like a SQL "WHERE" clause to request only instances matching specific criteria, e.g.:
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"name = %#", someNameString];
[request setPredicate:predicate];
In order to filter your query results you need to setPredicate for your request like so
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"daystamp = %#", formattedDatedd];
[request setPredicate:predicate];
And to display this to your label, use the same line you are using in the NSLog line.
[[objects objectAtIndex:0] valueForKey:#"sumCredit"]
if would look like this,
self.dayDisplayLabel.text = [[objects objectAtIndex:0] valueForKey:#"sumCredit"];
Hope this helps!
I search the net for answers to this problem, but unfortunately I don't think I am fluent enough in core data procedures to actually include the right combo of keywords.
I have two entities... Users and Bookmarks with a one-to-many relationship.
Users : string:firstName, string:lastname, string:iconImage
with a relationship to Bookmarks - inverse
Bookmarks : string:title, string:url, string:content, image:Binary Data, order:Integer32
with a relationship to Users - inverse
My goal here is to query the bookmarks for a particular user and find the highest number for the key:order, so that when I add an new bookmark, it will be one larger than the max. I have seen the Apple example, which works and makes sense, but I need a little more. The example returns the maximum value for all records in that entity.
-(NSNumber*) getNextBookmarksOrderForUser:(NSManagedObjectID*)userID
{
NSNumber *highOrder;
Users *user =[self getUserByID:userID];
if (user)
{
NSExpression *keyPathExpression = [NSExpression expressionForKeyPath:#"order"];
NSExpression *highestOrderingNumber = [NSExpression expressionForFunction:#"max:" arguments:[NSArray arrayWithObject:keyPathExpression]];
NSExpressionDescription *expressionDescription = [[NSExpressionDescription alloc]init];
[expressionDescription setName:#"maxOrdering"];
[expressionDescription setExpression:highestOrderingNumber];
[expressionDescription setExpressionResultType:NSDecimalAttributeType];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"Bookmarks" inManagedObjectContext:[_dataContext managedObjectContext]];
NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc]init];
[request setEntity:entity];
[request setPropertiesToFetch:[NSArray arrayWithObject:expressionDescription]];
[request setResultType:NSDictionaryResultType];
NSError *error = nil;
NSArray *objects = [[_dataContext managedObjectContext] executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];
if(objects == nil) {
// Handle the error
}
else {
if ([objects count] > 0) {
highOrder = [NSNumber numberWithInt:[[[objects objectAtIndex:0] valueForKey:#"maxOrdering"]intValue]];
NSLog(#"Highest ordering number: %#", highOrder);
}
}
return highOrder;
}
return nil;
}
So if I have two users, one with 10 bookmark and the other with 25, the above code will always return 25. I tried adding a predicate:
NSPredicate *byUser = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"self == %#", user];
[request setPredicate:byUser];
Does anyone have any suggestions? I Know that I could return all bookmark for a user and the write the code to find my value, but I would like to do it the most efficient way.
Thank you for any help.
From my comment
I think you should use a predicate like this [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"users == %#", user]; Since you are querying against Bookmarks.
For the life of me I can not seem to get this to work.
Assume our entity is an managed object with a status field and an order field.
How would I go about getting all orderedEntries having more than one order that are the same?
Please no answers telling me to just do a subquery with #count in the main predicate, since I know of that solution, the point of this post is to understand how to use the having predicate in core data, which would probably be faster than a subquery anyways. (unless you explain why I can not use a having clause)
The following code would return an array of dictionaries with the number of orders per order number. What I want is to be able to add a having clause to restrict my request to only return the dictionaries representing objects of those orders that have a count greater than 1.
Here is the code so far and my attempts at a having predicate:
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"OrderedEntry"
inManagedObjectContext:context];
[fetchRequest setEntity:entity];
[fetchRequest setResultType:NSDictionaryResultType];
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:
#"(status == %#)",[NSNumber numberWithInt:EntryStatusAlive]];
[fetchRequest setPredicate:predicate];
NSExpression *keyPathExpression = [NSExpression expressionForKeyPath: #"order"]; // Does not really matter
NSExpression *maxExpression = [NSExpression expressionForFunction: #"count:"
arguments: [NSArray arrayWithObject:keyPathExpression]];
NSExpressionDescription *expressionDescription = [[NSExpressionDescription alloc] init];
[expressionDescription setName: #"orderCount"];
[expressionDescription setExpression: maxExpression];
[expressionDescription setExpressionResultType: NSInteger32AttributeType];
[fetchRequest setPropertiesToFetch: [NSArray arrayWithObjects:expressionDescription,#"order",nil]];
[fetchRequest setPropertiesToGroupBy:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"order",nil]];
//[fetchRequest setHavingPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"#count > 1"]];
//[fetchRequest setHavingPredicate:[NSComparisonPredicate predicateWithLeftExpression:maxExpression rightExpression:[NSExpression expressionForConstantValue:[NSNumber numberWithInteger:1]] modifier:NSDirectPredicateModifier type:NSGreaterThanPredicateOperatorType options:NSCaseInsensitivePredicateOption]];
NSError *error;
NSArray * array = [context executeFetchRequest:fetchRequest error:&error];
I ended up going with this for anyone interested
-(BOOL)ordersAreSaneOnDay:(NSNumber*)dayNumber forUser:(User*)user inContext:(NSManagedObjectContext*)context {
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"BasicEntry"
inManagedObjectContext:context];
[fetchRequest setEntity:entity];
[fetchRequest setResultType:NSDictionaryResultType];
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:
#"(status == %#) && ((type != %#) && (type != %#) && (dayNumber == %#)) && ((user == NIL) || (user == %#))",[NSNumber numberWithInt:EntryStatusAlive],[NSNumber numberWithInt:EntryTypeTask],[NSNumber numberWithInt:EntryTypeCompletedTask],dayNumber,user];
[fetchRequest setPredicate:predicate];
NSExpression *keyPathExpression = [NSExpression expressionForKeyPath: #"order"]; // Does not really matter
NSExpression *maxExpression = [NSExpression expressionForFunction: #"count:"
arguments: [NSArray arrayWithObject:keyPathExpression]];
NSExpressionDescription *expressionDescription = [[NSExpressionDescription alloc] init];
[expressionDescription setName: #"orderCount"];
[expressionDescription setExpression: maxExpression];
[expressionDescription setExpressionResultType: NSInteger32AttributeType];
[fetchRequest setPropertiesToFetch: [NSArray arrayWithObjects:expressionDescription,#"order",nil]];
[expressionDescription release];
[fetchRequest setPropertiesToGroupBy:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"order",nil]];
//[fetchRequest setHavingPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"self.order.#count > 1"]];
//[fetchRequest setHavingPredicate:[NSComparisonPredicate predicateWithLeftExpression:maxExpression rightExpression:[NSExpression expressionForConstantValue:[NSNumber numberWithInteger:1]] modifier:NSDirectPredicateModifier type:NSGreaterThanPredicateOperatorType options:NSCaseInsensitivePredicateOption]];
NSError *error;
NSArray * array = [context executeFetchRequest:fetchRequest error:&error];
array = [array filteredArrayUsingPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"orderCount > 1"]];
//NSLog(#"it worked %#",array);
[fetchRequest release];
if ([array count]) return FALSE;
return TRUE;
}
I've got this working using the following:
[fetchRequest setHavingPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"$orderCount > 1"]];
Use the name of your expressionDecription as variable $orderCount.
Alternatively you can use
NSExpression *countExpression = [NSExpression expressionForVariable:#"orderCount"];
[fetchRequest setHavingPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"%# > 1", countExpression]];
Firstly, whenever I try something analogous to what you're doing, I get an error that you can't pass a to-many relationship to setPropertiesToFetch:. The NSFetchRequest documentation backs this up: "The property descriptions may represent attributes, to-one relationships, or expressions." So that's problem #1.
Problem #2 is that it appears that you can't group by a to-many relationship either (this isn't made clear in the documentation, but you get the same error and it also makes sense).
Remove "order" from the properties to fetch. Group by an attribute. Modify your main predicate to only include those attributes you group by (or just remove it). Specify "order" in your having predicate.
[fetchRequest setPropertiesToGroupBy: #[ #"???" ]];
[fetchRequest setHavingPredicate: [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat: #"self.order.#count > 1"]];
Now you'll see the request will work, but the results probably weren't what you were expecting:
- NSArray
- NSDictionary { status = #"alive", orderCount = "4" }
- NSDictionary { status = #"alive", orderCount = "9" }
- NSDictionary { status = #"alive", orderCount = "2" }
- etc...
NSDictionaryResultType doesn't actually give you anything to identify those objects by - it just gives you the values.
So your next step is to get back IDs for those OrderedEntry objects. The trick is to include an expression which will give you back the NSManagedObjectID as a key in each dictionary.
I don't know if this will actually give you improved performance at all (over just AND-ing it in to the main predicate). In my experience, one of the best things you can do to improve fetching performance is to create singleton NSPredicates and use substitution variables to set up each fetch. Predicate parsing can be expensive.
Dictionary result types can be a pain. Usually just constructing a good predicate is better. I tend only to use them for expressions (i.e. performing statistic-type calculations on the graph which return a value). If you look at all the restrictions around properties to fetch and group by and the predicate restrictions, this seems to be what Apple intend it for. I'm not even sure it's possible to do what you want to do by grouping and using a having predicate - for example, what are you going to group by? If by status (which you need to group by to include in your predicate), won't that collapse all the OrderEntries and you won't get the separate objectIDs and orderCounts? It's best to stick to the main predicate for this, not grouping and having predicates.