R – way to visualize records stored in an iPhone app via Core Data

iOS 9 and later:

iOS 9 added a new class called NSBatchDeleteRequest that allows you to easily delete objects matching a predicate without having to load them all in to memory. Here's how you'd use it:

Swift 5

let fetchRequest: NSFetchRequest<NSFetchRequestResult> = NSFetchRequest(entityName: "Car")
let deleteRequest = NSBatchDeleteRequest(fetchRequest: fetchRequest)

do {
    try myPersistentStoreCoordinator.execute(deleteRequest, with: myContext)
} catch let error as NSError {
    // TODO: handle the error
}

Objective-C

NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] initWithEntityName:@"Car"];
NSBatchDeleteRequest *delete = [[NSBatchDeleteRequest alloc] initWithFetchRequest:request];

NSError *deleteError = nil;
[myPersistentStoreCoordinator executeRequest:delete withContext:myContext error:&deleteError];

More information about batch deletions can be found in the "What's New in Core Data" session from WWDC 2015 (starting at ~14:10).

iOS 8 and earlier:

Fetch 'em all and delete 'em all:

NSFetchRequest *allCars = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
[allCars setEntity:[NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"Car" inManagedObjectContext:myContext]];
[allCars setIncludesPropertyValues:NO]; //only fetch the managedObjectID

NSError *error = nil;
NSArray *cars = [myContext executeFetchRequest:allCars error:&error];
[allCars release];
//error handling goes here
for (NSManagedObject *car in cars) {
  [myContext deleteObject:car];
}
NSError *saveError = nil;
[myContext save:&saveError];
//more error handling here

I'm a little late to this party, but i'm doing something similar for GroceryList. I have data stored in plist files that i need in my CoreData sqlite store. I wrote a command line foundation tool that runs on my Mac which parses the plist files and then using my Core Data object model creates a sqlite store. I run this command line tool as part of my build (for some build configurations) so that i can regenerate the data at will. To create this kind of tool in xcode, select File -> New Project -> Mac OS X -> Command Line Tool and select "Core Data" from the "type" menu. Here's some sample code:

#import <objc/objc-auto.h>

int main (int argc, const char * argv[]) {

    objc_startCollectorThread();

    //You may not know this, but NSUserDefaults can be used to parse command line arguments!
    //in this case, the arguments are passed in like this:
    // -fullMomPath /hd/some/path/file.mom -fullStorePath /hd/some/path/file.sql
    //by passing in the storePath, the calling script knows where the sqlite file will be and can copy it to the resulting application bundle
    NSUserDefaults *args = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];   
    NSString *momPath = [args stringForKey:@"fullMomPath"];
    NSString *storePath = [args stringForKey:@"fullStorePath"];

    // Create the managed object context
    NSManagedObjectContext *context = managedObjectContext(momPath, storePath);


    //build and save your NSManagedObjects here
    //in my case, i parse some plist files and create GroceryList type stuff, but whatever you do is your business.

    return 0;
}

NSManagedObjectModel *managedObjectModel(NSString* momPath) {

    static NSManagedObjectModel *model = nil;

    if (model != nil) {
        return model;
    }

    NSURL *modelURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:momPath];
    model = [[NSManagedObjectModel alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:modelURL];

    return model;
}



NSManagedObjectContext *managedObjectContext(NSString* momPath, NSString* storePath) {

    static NSManagedObjectContext *context = nil;
    if (context != nil) {
        return context;
    }

    context = [[NSManagedObjectContext alloc] init];

    NSPersistentStoreCoordinator *coordinator = [[NSPersistentStoreCoordinator alloc] initWithManagedObjectModel: managedObjectModel(momPath)];
    [context setPersistentStoreCoordinator: coordinator];

    NSString *STORE_TYPE = NSSQLiteStoreType;

    NSURL *url = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:storePath];

    NSError *error;
    NSPersistentStore *newStore = [coordinator addPersistentStoreWithType:STORE_TYPE configuration:nil URL:url options:nil error:&error];

    if (newStore == nil) {
        NSLog(@"Store Configuration Failure\n%@",
              ([error localizedDescription] != nil) ?
              [error localizedDescription] : @"Unknown Error");
    }

    return context;
}