I need code review on using singleton to access local database

Question

As I get to some performance issues in my app and find that I use database access in a bad way.
So I decided to move to singleton pattern.
I need someone to review this code and confirm me that I made a good database access via singleton pattern or I am doing something wrong:
This is the class:

@interface DataAccessController : NSObject{
    sqlite3 *databaseHandle;
}
+ (id)sharedManager;
-(void)initDatabase;
...
+ (id)sharedManager {
    static DataAccessController *sharedMyManager = nil;
    static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
    dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^{
        sharedMyManager = [[self alloc] init];
    });
    return sharedMyManager;
}

- (id)init {
    if (self = [super init]) {
        [self initDatabase]; // open database connection
    }
    return self;
}
...

AppDelegate.m

DataAccessController *d = [DataAccessController sharedManager];

Usage through the application every time I need data I use:

DataAccessController *d = [DataAccessController sharedManager];
NSMutableArray* data = [d getAllRecordedUnits];

Answer 1

Based on your provided code, this is the correct way to create a singleton object.

In such, here's a reference link from Matt Gallow's site showing the same singleton setup as you're doing.

However, there is not enough information provided to determine the cause of your performance issues (whether or not caused by accessing the database). In general, writing efficient database code is hard, which is why Core Data exists.

You might consider looking into Core Data to see if this will work better for your app or perhaps creating a question on StackOverflow describing the issue you're seeing in more detail and asking for help on how to implement what you're trying to do.

Answer 2

It's the same pattern I always use for "singletons".

I have two more picky comments.

1. Move the declaration of the databaseHandle instance variable into the implementation. With modern Objective-C, you should never have instance variables in your interface declaration.
2. Rename -initDatabase. The convention is that methods beginning with init... are initialisers. Perhaps call it openDatabase.