objective c - Fetch aggregate data from NSManagedObject using another expression as argument to sum: expression

Question

Is it possible to use expression as argument for sum: expression?

I have entity (NSManagedObject class) Drink with properties costPerDrink, numberOfDrinks and drinkingDate.

I would like to get sum of total costs (numberOfDrinks multiplied by costPerDrink) within time period. While I have no problems getting sum on single property (e.g. sum of numberOfDrinks within time period), when I try to use sum expression on another (multiply) expression I got error:

NSInvalidArgumentException, reason: Unsupported argument to sum : 
(
    "costPerDrink * numberOfDrinks" 
)

See code:

// Init fech
NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"Drink" inManagedObjectContext:[Service appContext]];
[request setEntity:entity];

// Return dictionary
[request setResultType:NSDictionaryResultType];

// Set conditions
[request setPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"(drinkingDate>=%@) AND (drinkingDate<=%@)", self.startDate, self.endDate]];

// Set 1st column to be returned - count of drinks
NSExpression *drinksExpression = [NSExpression expressionForKeyPath:@"numberOfDrinks"];
NSExpression *sumDrinksExpression = [NSExpression expressionForFunction:@"sum:" arguments:[NSArray arrayWithObject:drinksExpression]];
NSExpressionDescription *sumDrinksResultDescription = [[NSExpressionDescription alloc] init];
[sumDrinksResultDescription setName:@"sumDrinks"];
[sumDrinksResultDescription setExpression:sumDrinksExpression];
[sumDrinksResultDescription setExpressionResultType:NSInteger32AttributeType];

// Set 2nd column to be returned - total cost
NSExpression *costExpression = [NSExpression expressionForKeyPath:@"costPerDrink"];
NSExpression *totalExpression = [NSExpression expressionForFunction:@"multiply:by:"
                                                            arguments:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:costExpression,
                                                                                          drinksExpression, nil]];
NSExpression *sumCostExpression = [NSExpression expressionForFunction:@"sum:" arguments:[NSArray arrayWithObject:totalExpression]];
NSExpressionDescription *sumCostResultDescription = [[NSExpressionDescription alloc] init];
[sumCostResultDescription setName:@"sumCost"];
[sumCostResultDescription setExpression:sumCostExpression];
[sumCostResultDescription setExpressionResultType:NSDecimalAttributeType];

// Add expressions to fetch
[request setPropertiesToFetch:[NSArray arrayWithObjects: sumDrinksResultDescription, sumCostResultDescription, nil]];

// Execute fech
NSError *error;
NSArray *result = [[Service appContext] executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];

I perfectly understand that particular problem can be solved by adding auto-calculated totalCost property to Drink entity and then using sum: in fetch without multiply:by: expression but question remains - is it possible to use expression as argument for sum: expression?

Answer 1

Waitting for answers