How to modify a contact number in address book programmatically?

Question

I am currently writing an app which should enable the user to modify the contact details (mainly numbers) in the app, and then these modifications should be reflected directly to the Address Book.

I searched thoroughly on the internet, but all the examples I found were either to load the contacts or add new contact, but nothing on modifying an existing contact.

also how can I get a list of all phone numbers of a single contact, in case he has several numbers stored.

Answer 1

To allow a user to edit their details directly, see Apple's documentation on displaying and editing a person record. The initial section of that says, "Set the delegate, which must adopt the ABPersonViewControllerDelegate protocol. To allow the user to edit the record, set allowsEditing to YES."

For example:

ABPersonViewController *personViewController = [[ABPersonViewController alloc] init];
personViewController.personViewDelegate = self;
personViewController.allowsEditing = YES;

Other than setting allowsEditing, the code would be exactly the same as that required to display a person's details without editing. (This code was drawn from this answer which displays a fuller example regarding deleting a contact from the address book.)

However, I see your title refers to doing so programatically. Apple's Address Book Programing Guide for iOS says, "Remember that the Address Book database is ultimately owned by the user, so applications must be careful not to make unexpected changes to it. Generally, changes should be initiated or confirmed by the user."

However, it is possible. The following example appears on p.17 of that document:

ABRecordRef aRecord = ABPersonCreate();
CFErrorRef anError = NULL;
bool didSet;

didSet = ABRecordSetValue(aRecord, kABPersonFirstNameProperty, CFSTR("Katie"), &anError);
if (!didSet) {/* Handle error here. */}

didSet = ABRecordSetValue(aRecord, kABPersonLastNameProperty, CFSTR("Bell"), &anError);     
if (!didSet) {/* Handle error here. */}

CFStringRef firstName, lastName; 
firstName = ABRecordCopyValue(aRecord, kABPersonFirstNameProperty);
lastName = ABRecordCopyValue(aRecord, kABPersonLastNameProperty);
/* ... Do something with firstName and lastName. ... */

CFRelease(aRecord);
CFRelease(firstName);
CFRelease(lastName);