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Cascade deletion for RealmSwift
import RealmSwift
import Realm
protocol CascadeDeleting: class {
func delete<Entity>(_ list: List<Entity>, cascading: Bool)
func delete<Entity>(_ results: Results<Entity>, cascading: Bool)
func delete<Entity: Object>(_ entity: Entity, cascading: Bool)
}
extension Realm: CascadeDeleting {
func delete<Entity>(_ list: List<Entity>, cascading: Bool) {
list.forEach {
delete($0, cascading: cascading)
}
}
func delete<Entity>(_ results: Results<Entity>, cascading: Bool) {
results.forEach {
delete($0, cascading: cascading)
}
}
func delete<Entity: Object>(_ entity: Entity, cascading: Bool) {
if cascading {
cascadeDelete(entity)
} else {
delete(entity)
}
}
}
private extension Realm {
private func cascadeDelete(_ entity: RLMObjectBase) {
guard let entity = entity as? Object else { return }
var toBeDeleted = Set<RLMObjectBase>()
toBeDeleted.insert(entity)
while !toBeDeleted.isEmpty {
guard let element = toBeDeleted.removeFirst() as? Object,
!element.isInvalidated else { continue }
resolve(element: element, toBeDeleted: &toBeDeleted)
}
}
private func resolve(element: Object, toBeDeleted: inout Set<RLMObjectBase>) {
element.objectSchema.properties.forEach {
guard let value = element.value(forKey: $0.name) else { return }
if let entity = value as? RLMObjectBase {
toBeDeleted.insert(entity)
} else if let list = value as? RealmSwift.ListBase {
for index in 0..<list._rlmArray.count {
toBeDeleted.insert(list._rlmArray.object(at: index))
}
}
}
delete(element)
}
}
@anfriis
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anfriis commented Sep 29, 2017

Can you give an example on how to use this?

@krodak
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Author

krodak commented Sep 29, 2017

@anfriis you just use it like normal delete function from RealmSwift SDK. You can ignore cascadeDelete() and resolve as these are only private implementations that the user (programmer) shouldn't need to be aware of.

The protocol is just for the sake of Protocol Oriented Programming, if you tend to write your tests using mock objects, it's much easier if everything is covered by protocols.

But for the sake of example, assuming that you have a ContactEntity model:

final class ContactEntity: Object {
    @objc dynamic var id: String = ""
    let phoneNumbers = List<PhoneNumberEntity>() // this needs to be deleted every time `ContactEntity` is deleted
    let profiles = List<SocialProfileEntity>()   // this needs to be deleted every time `ContactEntity` is deleted
}

You can fetch and delete its elements similar to standard delete function:

guard let database = try? Realm() else { return }

// to delete Result<ContactEntity>
let contacts = database.objects(ContactEntity.self)
do {
    try database.write {
        database.delete(contacts, cascading: true)
    }
} catch {
    // handle write error here
}

// to delete ContactEntity
guard let contact = Array(database.objects(ContactEntity.self)).first else { return }
do {
    try database.write {
        database.delete(contact, cascading: true)
    }
} catch {
    // handle write error here
}

@anfriis let me know if you run into any issues with the example

@sirioz
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sirioz commented Oct 11, 2017

I'm using it in production.
It works like a charm.

Thanks!

@goa
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goa commented Oct 20, 2017

I had a bit of trouble with this in Realm 3 / Swift 4.

Here's a slightly more generic version which works fine and also allows you to delete any kind of Sequence of Objects as well.

import RealmSwift
import Realm

protocol CascadeDeleting: class {
	func delete<S: Sequence>(_ objects: S, cascading: Bool) where S.Iterator.Element: Object
	func delete<Entity: Object>(_ entity: Entity, cascading: Bool)
}

extension Realm: CascadeDeleting {
	func delete<S: Sequence>(_ objects: S, cascading: Bool) where S.Iterator.Element: Object {
		for obj in objects {
			delete(obj, cascading: cascading)
		}
	}

	func delete<Entity: Object>(_ entity: Entity, cascading: Bool) {
		if cascading {
			cascadeDelete(entity)
		} else {
			delete(entity)
		}
	}
}

private extension Realm {
	private func cascadeDelete(_ entity: RLMObjectBase) {
		guard let entity = entity as? Object else { return }
		var toBeDeleted = Set<RLMObjectBase>()
		toBeDeleted.insert(entity)
		while !toBeDeleted.isEmpty {
			guard let element = toBeDeleted.removeFirst() as? Object,
				!element.isInvalidated else { continue }
			resolve(element: element, toBeDeleted: &toBeDeleted)
		}
	}

	private func resolve(element: Object, toBeDeleted: inout Set<RLMObjectBase>) {
		element.objectSchema.properties.forEach {
			guard let value = element.value(forKey: $0.name) else { return }
			if let entity = value as? RLMObjectBase {
				toBeDeleted.insert(entity)
			} else if let list = value as? RealmSwift.ListBase {
				for index in 0..<list._rlmArray.count {
					toBeDeleted.insert(list._rlmArray.object(at: index) as! RLMObjectBase)
				}
			}
		}
		delete(element)
	}
}

@robertofrontado
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@goa it works nicely, although I would recommend you to avoid that force unwrap, because if you are storing a List of primitives such as List<String> it will crash since it is not a RLMObjectBase

for index in 0 ..< list._rlmArray.count {
          if let realmObject = list._rlmArray.object(at: index) as? RLMObjectBase {
            toBeDeleted.insert(realmObject)
          }
        }

@georgemp
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Hi,
Would this take into consideration the number of references an object has before deleting it in a cascade? For example, if we have something like

class Ingredient: Object {
}

class Pie: Object {
var ingredients: List<Ingredient>?
}

class Bread: Object {
var ingredients: List<Ingredient>?
}

let flour = Ingredient()
let applePie = Pie()
applePie.ingredients.append(flour)
let whiteBread = Bread()
whiteBread.append(flour)

delete(applePie, cascading: true)

If I'm reading the code right, when we delete applePie, the ingredient flour gets deleted as well (even though it is referenced in the list of ingredients for whiteBread). Could you confirm this is the case? Thanks

@tarangpatel
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tarangpatel commented Apr 13, 2018

@georgemp Yes thats true behavior.
So now how can we avoid this?
One way is to check for LinkingObjects when deleting the List
So Ingredients will have a property owner which will be LinkingObjects to Pie and Bread.
We need to check if Ingredients object had more than 1 LinkingObjects before deleting.

I am trying to work on this. If anyone has better solution already please update it.

One quick workaround is to update resolve func as follow:

class Ingredient: Object {
let owners = LinkingObjects(fromType: BaseBakedObject.self, property: "ingredients")
}
for index in 0 ..< list._rlmArray.count {
                    if let realmObject = list._rlmArray.object(at: index) as? RLMObjectBase {
                        
                        if let object = realmObject as? Ingredient {
                            if let owners = object.owners as? LinkingObjects<Object> {
                                if owners.count > 1 {
                                    continue
                                }
                            }
                        }
                        toBeDeleted.insert(realmObject)
                    }
                }

Thanks.

@GlebCherkashyn
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thank you all guys for answers! for swift 4 @goa version works perfect, but @robertofrontado is right about primitives

@adiroman
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@robertofrontado and how would i delete a list of strings?

@Bogsey
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Bogsey commented Nov 8, 2018

To give a more fine grained approach I have made a small change to the solution that @goa suggested.

import RealmSwift
import Realm

protocol CascadeDeleting: class {
    func delete<S: Sequence>(_ objects: S, cascading: Bool) where S.Iterator.Element: Object
    func delete<Entity: Object>(_ entity: Entity, cascading: Bool)
}

extension Realm: CascadeDeleting {
    func delete<S: Sequence>(_ objects: S, cascading: Bool) where S.Iterator.Element: Object {
        for obj in objects {
            delete(obj, cascading: cascading)
        }
    }
    
    func delete<Entity: Object>(_ entity: Entity, cascading: Bool) {
        if cascading {
            cascadeDelete(entity)
        } else {
            delete(entity)
        }
    }
}

private extension Realm {
    private func cascadeDelete(_ entity: RLMObjectBase) {
        guard let entity = entity as? Object else { return }
        var toBeDeleted = Set<RLMObjectBase>()
        toBeDeleted.insert(entity)
        while !toBeDeleted.isEmpty {
            guard let element = toBeDeleted.removeFirst() as? Object,
                !element.isInvalidated else { continue }
            resolve(element: element, toBeDeleted: &toBeDeleted)
        }
    }
    
    private func resolve(element: Object, toBeDeleted: inout Set<RLMObjectBase>) {
        if let cascadingObject = element as? CascadeDeletable {
            element.objectSchema.properties.forEach {
                if cascadingObject.propertiesToCascadeDelete.contains($0.name) {
                    guard let value = element.value(forKey: $0.name) else { return }
                    if let entity = value as? RLMObjectBase {
                        toBeDeleted.insert(entity)
                    } else if let list = value as? RealmSwift.ListBase {
                        for index in 0..<list._rlmArray.count {
                            if let realmObject = list._rlmArray.object(at: index) as? RLMObjectBase {
                                toBeDeleted.insert(realmObject)
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        delete(element)
    }
}

protocol CascadeDeletable: class {
    var propertiesToCascadeDelete: [String] { get }
}

Only objects that conform to the CascadeDeletable protocol will have cascade delete enabled and you can select which properties to cascade delete. Any other properties that are realm objects or collections won't be cascaded and will remain after the deletion.

@devpeds
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devpeds commented Dec 15, 2018

Thank you all for providing the solution and I have just refactored the @Bogsey's resolve method to reduce the number of indentations.

private extension Realm {
    private func cascadingDelete(_ object: Object) {
        var toBeDeleted = Set<RLMObjectBase>()
        toBeDeleted.insert(object)
        while !toBeDeleted.isEmpty {
            guard let element = toBeDeleted.removeFirst() as? Object, !element.isInvalidated else { continue }
            resolve(element, toBeDeleted: &toBeDeleted)
            delete(element)
        }
    }
    
    private func resolve(_ element: Object, toBeDeleted: inout Set<RLMObjectBase>) {
        guard let deletable = element as? CascadeDeletable else { return }
        let propertiesToDelete = element.objectSchema.properties.filter {
            deletable.propertiesToCascadeDelete.contains($0.name)
        }
        propertiesToDelete.forEach {
            guard let value = element.value(forKey: $0.name) else { return }
            if let object = value as? Object {
                toBeDeleted.insert(object)
            } else if let list = value as? RealmSwift.ListBase {
                for index in 0..<list._rlmArray.count {
                    guard let object = list._rlmArray.object(at: index) as? Object else { continue }
                    toBeDeleted.insert(object)
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

@Bogsey
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Bogsey commented Mar 20, 2019

I'm returning to this as I now have a need to be able to include LinkingObjects in the cascade. Any idea how I would do that, LinkingObjectsBase class doesn't seem to expose any of the results to delete.

@Bogsey
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Bogsey commented Mar 21, 2019

Have updated the function with the refactoring suggested by @devpeds to include the cascading of linkingObjects too. Need to specify the type in the protocol to allow them to be cast to the correct type of LinkingObjects

private extension Realm {
    
    private func cascadingDelete(_ object: Object) {
        var toBeDeleted = Set<RLMObjectBase>()
        toBeDeleted.insert(object)
        while !toBeDeleted.isEmpty {
            guard let element = toBeDeleted.removeFirst() as? Object, !element.isInvalidated else { continue }
            resolve(element: element, toBeDeleted: &toBeDeleted)
            delete(element)
        }
    }
    
    private func resolve(element: Object, toBeDeleted: inout Set<RLMObjectBase>) {
        guard let deletable = element as? CascadeDeletable else { return }
        let computedProperties = (type(of: element).sharedSchema()?.computedProperties ?? []).map { $0.name }
        let propertiesToDelete = ((element.objectSchema.properties.map { $0.name }) + computedProperties).filter { (propertyName) -> Bool in
            deletable.propertiesToCascadeDelete.keys.contains(where: { (name) -> Bool in
                name == propertyName
            })
        }
        propertiesToDelete.forEach {
            guard let value = element.value(forKey: $0) else { return }
            if let entity = value as? RLMObjectBase {
                toBeDeleted.insert(entity)
            } else if let list = value as? RealmSwift.ListBase {
                for index in 0..<list._rlmArray.count {
                    guard let realmObject = list._rlmArray.object(at: index) as? RLMObjectBase else { continue }
                    toBeDeleted.insert(realmObject)
                }
            } else if let linkingObjects = value as? LinkingObjectsBase {
                guard let type = deletable.propertiesToCascadeDelete[$0] else { return }
                guard let unrwappedType = type else { fatalError("Object type not specified for cascade delete of linking object") }
                guard let objects = convertLinkingBase(linkingObjects, to: unrwappedType) else { return }
                for index in 0..<objects.count {
                    toBeDeleted.insert(objects[index])
                }
            }
        }
    }
    
    private func convertLinkingBase<Element: Object>(_ linkingObjects: LinkingObjectsBase, to type: Element.Type) -> LinkingObjects<Element>? {
        let p = unsafeBitCast(linkingObjects, to: Optional<LinkingObjects<Element>>.self)
        return p
    }
}

protocol CascadeDeletable: class {
    var propertiesToCascadeDelete: [String: Object.Type?] { get }
}

@dharmendra-ios
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Can you give an example on how to use this in objective c?

@sssbohdan
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In new Realm version just remove : class after protocol declaration (Realm object is struct now).

@varyP
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varyP commented May 15, 2020

LinkingObjectsBase not found in Realm 4.x.x

@samrayner
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samrayner commented Jun 6, 2020

Fixed for Realm 4 and removed the need to specify types for the properties as long as all objects have a primaryKey().
https://gist.github.com/samrayner/44d34fdc77e7d8d766fd467d557753a9

@tontonbibi
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Hello,
Since Realm 10.8.0, RealmSwift.ListBase or RLMListBase are not reachable anymore. Does anyone have an idea how to replace them ?
Thank you very much for your help.

@iSevenDays
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iSevenDays commented Jun 24, 2021

I think the following code should be used, but I am yet to see it in production

internal protocol CascadingDeletable: RealmSwift.Object {
	static var propertiesToCascadeDelete: [String] { get }
}

extension Realm {
	internal func cascadingDelete(_ object: RealmSwift.Object) {
		var toBeDeleted: Set<RLMObjectBase> = [object]
		while let element = toBeDeleted.popFirst() as? RealmSwift.Object {
			guard !element.isInvalidated else { continue }
			if let cascadingDeletable = element as? CascadingDeletable {
				cascade(into: cascadingDeletable, toBeDeleted: &toBeDeleted)
			}
			delete(element)
		}
	}

	private func cascade(into object: CascadingDeletable, toBeDeleted: inout Set<RLMObjectBase>) {
		let objectType = type(of: object)

		guard let schema = objectType.sharedSchema() else { return }

		let primaryKey = objectType.primaryKey()
		let primaryKeyValue = primaryKey.flatMap(object.value(forKey:))

		let properties = (schema.properties + schema.computedProperties)
			.filter { objectType.propertiesToCascadeDelete.contains($0.name) }

		for property in properties {
			switch object.value(forKey: property.name) {
			case let realmObject as RLMObjectBase:
				toBeDeleted.insert(realmObject)
			case let list as RLMSwiftCollectionBase:
				for index in 0 ..< list._rlmCollection.count {
					guard let realmObject = list._rlmCollection.object(at: index) as? RLMObjectBase else { continue }
					toBeDeleted.insert(realmObject)
				}
			default: // LinkingObjects
				if let linkOriginPropertyName = property.linkOriginPropertyName,
				   let linkOriginTypeName = property.objectClassName,
				   let primaryKey = primaryKey,
				   let primaryKeyValue = primaryKeyValue {
					dynamicObjects(linkOriginTypeName)
						.filter("%K == %@", "\(linkOriginPropertyName).\(primaryKey)", primaryKeyValue)
						.forEach { toBeDeleted.insert($0) }
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

@cpd
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cpd commented Aug 5, 2021

Updated code to use RLMSwiftCollectionBase instead of RealmSwift.ListBase which looks fine at first glance but using this hack with latest release seems pretty dangerous, since Realm 10.0 theres a built in cascade delete https://www.mongodb.com/developer/article/realm-database-cascading-deletes/#cascading-deletes probably better to stick with it although I didn't tried that yet.

extension Realm {
    func delete<S: Sequence>(_ objects: S, cascading: Bool) where S.Iterator.Element: Object {
        for obj in objects {
            delete(obj, cascading: cascading)
        }
    }
    
    func delete<Entity: Object>(_ entity: Entity, cascading: Bool) {
        if cascading {
            cascadeDelete(entity)
        } else {
            delete(entity)
        }
    }
}

private extension Realm {
    private func cascadeDelete(_ entity: RLMObjectBase) {
        guard let entity = entity as? Object else { return }
        
        var toBeDeleted = Set<RLMObjectBase>()
        
        toBeDeleted.insert(entity)
        
        while !toBeDeleted.isEmpty {
            guard let element = toBeDeleted.removeFirst() as? Object, !element.isInvalidated else { continue }
            
            resolve(element: element, toBeDeleted: &toBeDeleted)
        }
    }
    
    private func resolve(element: Object, toBeDeleted: inout Set<RLMObjectBase>) {
        element.objectSchema.properties.forEach {
            guard let value = element.value(forKey: $0.name) else { return }
            
            if let entity = value as? RLMObjectBase {
                toBeDeleted.insert(entity)
            } else if let list = value as? RLMSwiftCollectionBase {
                for index in 0..<list._rlmCollection.count {
                    if let object = list._rlmCollection.object(at: index) as? RLMObjectBase {
                        toBeDeleted.insert(object)
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        
        delete(element)
    }
}

@iSevenDays
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@cpd, thanks for letting us know! I didn't know the cascading delete was implemented. Thanks!

@lif-wtag
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@cpd, Thanks a lot mate!
I was having trouble with Resolve function as RealmSwift.ListBase is no longer supported in RealmSwift v10.17.0.
Your code with RLMSwiftCollectionBase helped me, Thanks again.

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