Cfrgtkky

So I have been doing research on how to store an array of images and I am currently using an extension method suggested in another stack overflow post.

extension Array where Element: UIImage {

    // Given an array of UIImages return a Data representation of the array suitable for storing in core data as binary data that allows external storage

    func coreDataRepresentation() -> ImageArrayRepresentation? {

        let CDataArray = NSMutableArray()



        for img in self {

            guard let imageRepresentation = UIImagePNGRepresentation(img) else {

                print("Unable to represent image as PNG")

                return nil

            }

            let data : NSData = NSData(data: imageRepresentation)

            CDataArray.add(data)

        }



        return NSKeyedArchiver.archivedData(withRootObject: CDataArray)

    }

}



extension ImageArrayRepresentation {

    // Given a Data representation of an array of UIImages return the array

    func imageArray() -> ImageArray? {

        if let mySavedData = NSKeyedUnarchiver.unarchiveObject(with: self) as? NSArray {

            // TODO: Use regular map and return nil if something can't be turned into a UIImage

            let imgArray = mySavedData.compactMap({

                return UIImage(data: $0 as! Data)

            })

            return imgArray

        }

        else {

            print("Unable to convert data to ImageArray")

            return nil

        }

    }

}

So then when I save the array I simply use images.coreDataRepresentation() and store it in a binary data attribute of my entity.

My fear is that as the array may contain upwards of 900 images, and that constantly saving all of this data would result in delays. I was thinking that using a system similar to that of relational databases where I keep a separate core data entity to hold solely these photos with a relationship based on id, however, after doing more research I found that this is not advised with core data. Is there a better way to do this? Or is one of these methods superior?