iphone - Core Data: Fetch result from multiple entities or relationship

Question

I have two entities. Employee entity

@interface Employee : NSManagedObject

@property (nonatomic, retain) NSString * dept;
@property (nonatomic, retain) NSString * email;
@property (nonatomic, retain) NSString * name;
@property (nonatomic, retain) Department *deptEmp;

@end

and Department entity

@interface Department : NSManagedObject

@property (nonatomic, retain) NSString * location;
@property (nonatomic, retain) NSString * name;
@property (nonatomic, retain) Employee *deptEmp1;

I am trying to fetch information from both with following predicate

NSMutableString *queryString = [NSMutableString stringWithFormat:@"(name = 'Apple') AND (deptEmp1.location like 'Cupertino')"];

NSEntityDescription *entityDescription = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"Employee" inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];

And Fetch Request is

NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
[request setEntity:entityDescription];
[request setResultType:NSDictionaryResultType]; // NSFetchRequestResultType - NSDictionaryResultType
[request setRelationshipKeyPathsForPrefetching:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"Department",nil]];
[request setIncludesSubentities:YES];

Setting Predicate

if(![queryString isEqualToString:@""])
{
        [request setPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:queryString]];
}

NSError *error = nil;
NSArray *returnArray = nil;

Fetching Result

@synchronized(self)
{
    returnArray = [self.managedObjectContext executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];
}

But here I never get result.

Answer 1

I'm not sure what you want to achieve but if you want to retrieve an Employee who works in a specific department name and in a specific location, I'll use a the following code:

NSMutableString *queryString = [NSMutableString stringWithFormat:@"deptEmp1.name == %@ AND deptEmp1.location == %@", @"Apple", @"Cupertino"]; 
NSEntityDescription *entityDescription = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"Employee" inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];

NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
[request setEntity:entityDescription];
[request setRelationshipKeyPathsForPrefetching:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"Department",nil]];
[request setIncludesSubentities:YES];

NSArray* returnArray = [self.managedObjectContext executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];
if([returnArray count] > 0) {

   Employee* emp = [returnArray objectAtIndex:0];
   NSLog(@"%@ %@ %@", emp.name, emp.dept, emp.deptEmp.location);
}

Few notes

Why do you use a lock on the request? Have you set a inverse rel? Maybe do you need to set up a one-to-many rel between Department and Employee?

Try and let me know.

Edit

Try this one. I didn't notice the query string in your question.

NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"deptEmp1.name == %@ AND deptEmp1.location == %@", @"Apple", @"Cupertino"]; 
NSEntityDescription *entityDescription = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"Employee" inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];

NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
[request setEntity:entityDescription];
[request setPredicate:predicate];
[request setRelationshipKeyPathsForPrefetching:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"Department",nil]];
[request setIncludesSubentities:YES];

NSArray* returnArray = [self.managedObjectContext executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];
if([returnArray count] > 0) {

   Employee* emp = [returnArray objectAtIndex:0];
   NSLog(@"%@ %@ %@", emp.name, emp.dept, emp.deptEmp.location);
}

Edit 2

NSEntityDescription *entityDescription = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"Employee" inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];

NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
[request setEntity:entityDescription];
[request setRelationshipKeyPathsForPrefetching:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"Department",nil]];

NSArray* returnArray = [self.managedObjectContext executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];
for(Employee* emp in returnArray) {

   NSLog(@"%@", emp);
   NSLog(@"%@", emp.deptEmp);
}