Fastest way to check if an object exists in Core Data or not?

Setup a Core Data request and, instead of actually issuing the query, do the following:

NSError *error = nil;
NSUInteger count = [managedObjectContext countForFetchRequest:request
                                                        error:&error];
if (!error) {
    return count;
} else {
  return 0;
}

In practice, the method countForFetchRequest:error: returns the number of objects a given fetch request would have returned if it had been passed to executeFetchRequest:error:.

Edit: ^{(by Regexident)}

As Josh Caswell correctly commented, the correct way to handle errors is either this:

if (count == NSNotFound) {
    NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);
    return 0;
}
return count;

or this (without error logging):

return (count != NSNotFound) ? count : 0;

Yes, definitely there is a better method. Setup a fetch request as usual, but, instead of actually executing it, simply ask for the number of objects it would have returned if it had been passed to executeFetchRequest:error:

This can be done using

- (NSUInteger)countForFetchRequest:(NSFetchRequest *)request error:(NSError **)error;

Something like this:

- (int) numberOfContacts{

    NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
    NSManagedObjectContext *managedObjectContext = yourManagedObjectContext;
    NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"Contacts" inManagedObjectContext:managedObjectContext];
    [request setEntity:entity];

    NSError *error = nil;
    NSUInteger count = [managedObjectContext countForFetchRequest:request error:&error];
    [request release];

    if (!error){
        return count;
    }
    else
        return -1;

}