Edit Contacts in Address Book using iPhone programming

This article explains how to edit an existing contact in the iPhone Address Book using programming. First try to get all the contacts from the AddressBook and search for the particular contact which needs to be edited. Use the following code

ABAddressBookRef addressBook= ABAddressBookCreate(); // this will open the AddressBook of the iPhone
CFArrayRef people = ABAddressBookCopyArrayOfAllPeople(addressBook); // this copies all the contacts from the Address Book into the array
NSString *contactName = [[NSString alloc] init];

// specify the contact name to be edited
contactName = @"ABCD";
for (int i =0 ;i<ABAddressBookGetPersonCount(addressBook);i++){
ABRecordRef ref = CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(people, i);
NSString *firstName = (NSString *)ABRecordCopyValue(ref,kABPersonFirstNameProperty); // this gets the First Name of the person

// check whether the editable contact exists in the AddressBook if exists then allows the user to edit the contact
if ([contactName compare: firstName] == NSOrderedSame) {
ABPersonViewController *personController = [[ABPersonViewController alloc] init];
personController.addressBook = addressBook; // this passes the reference of the Address Book
personController.displayedPerson = ref; // this sets the person reference
personController.allowsEditing = YES; // this allows the user to edit the details
personController.personViewDelegate = self;
personController.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = [self editButtonItem]; // this will add the inbuilt Edit button to the view

// this displays the contact with the details and presents with an Edit button
[[self navigationController] pushViewController:personController animated:YES];
[personController release];
}
}


// setEditing method needs to be overridden for edit functionality to work properly
------------------
- (void)setEditing:(BOOL)flag animated:(BOOL)animated {
[super setEditing:flag animated:animated];
if (flag == YES){
// change the view to an editable view
[ [self navigationController] setEditing:YES animated:NO];
}
else {
// save the changes and change the view to noneditable
[ [self navigationController] setEditing:NO animated:NO];
}
}

- (BOOL)personViewController:(ABPersonViewController *)personViewController shouldPerformDefaultActionForPerson:(ABRecordRef)person property:(ABPropertyID)property identifier:(ABMultiValueIdentifier)identifierForValue {
return YES;
}