Core Data Primary Key

Your options are:

• Use -[NSManagedObject objectID]. Note that this ID is temporary until either the object is saved for the first time or you call -[NSManagedObjectContext obtainPermanentIDsForObjects:error:]
• Use the CFUUID family of functions to generate a UUID for each object in your -awakeFromInsert method
• Create your own primary key-like system that stores an integer in your model and increments it with the creation of each object

There is no good way to validate that a property is unique. The closest you'll get is to ensure it is unique at creation time, and then implement a custom setter method that stops anyone ever changing the ID.

Keep in mind that Core Data is an object-graph persistence framework, not a database. Things like primary keys are abstracted away because they depend on the implementation of the persistent store.

Core Data makes its own primary key - you don't have to add one. You can retrieve it with

NSManagedObjectID *moID = [managedObject objectID];

A Swift Extension to retrieve the primary key

extension NSManagedObject {
    var primaryKey : String {
        guard objectID.uriRepresentation().lastPathComponent.count > 1 else { return "" }
        return objectID.uriRepresentation().lastPathComponent.substring(from: 1)
    }
}

And for String

extension String
{
    func substring(from : Int) -> String {
        guard self.count > from else { return "" }
        return String(self[self.index(self.startIndex, offsetBy: from)...])
     }
}