---
title: ABGroup
framework: addressbook
role: symbol
role_heading: Class
path: addressbook/abgroup
---

# ABGroup

An object that represents a group of records in the Address Book database.

## Declaration

```swift
class ABGroup
```

## Overview

Overview The ABGroup class supports the concept of a “group” containing one or more persons. People may belong to multiple groups, and groups may also belong to other groups unless the relationship causes a circular reference. The only predefined property of a group is its name. However, similar to person records, you can add your own properties to group records. Groups not only help to organize person records, but also allow you to create email distribution lists. The ABGroup class is “toll-free bridged” with its procedural C opaque-type counterpart. This means that the ABGroupRef type is interchangeable in function or method calls with instances of the ABGroup class.

## Topics

### Managing properties

- [addPropertiesAndTypes(_:)](addressbook/abgroup/addpropertiesandtypes(_:).md)
- [removeProperties(_:)](addressbook/abgroup/removeproperties(_:).md)
- [properties()](addressbook/abgroup/properties().md)
- [type(ofProperty:)](addressbook/abgroup/type(ofproperty:).md)

### Managing persons

- [addMember(_:)](addressbook/abgroup/addmember(_:).md)
- [removeMember(_:)](addressbook/abgroup/removemember(_:).md)
- [members()](addressbook/abgroup/members().md)

### Managing subgroups

- [addSubgroup(_:)](addressbook/abgroup/addsubgroup(_:).md)
- [removeSubgroup(_:)](addressbook/abgroup/removesubgroup(_:).md)
- [parentGroups()](addressbook/abgroup/parentgroups().md)
- [subgroups()](addressbook/abgroup/subgroups().md)

### Managing Distribution Lists

- [distributionIdentifier(forProperty:person:)](addressbook/abgroup/distributionidentifier(forproperty:person:).md)
- [setDistributionIdentifier(_:forProperty:person:)](addressbook/abgroup/setdistributionidentifier(_:forproperty:person:).md)

### Searching

- [searchElement(forProperty:label:key:value:comparison:)](addressbook/abgroup/searchelement(forproperty:label:key:value:comparison:).md)

## Relationships

### Inherits From

- [ABRecord](addressbook/abrecord.md)

### Conforms To

- [CVarArg](swift/cvararg.md)
- [CustomDebugStringConvertible](swift/customdebugstringconvertible.md)
- [CustomStringConvertible](swift/customstringconvertible.md)
- [Equatable](swift/equatable.md)
- [Hashable](swift/hashable.md)
- [NSObjectProtocol](objectivec/nsobjectprotocol.md)

## See Also

### Data Types

- [ABPerson](addressbook/abperson.md)
- [ABMultiValue](addressbook/abmultivalue.md)
- [ABMutableMultiValue](addressbook/abmutablemultivalue.md)
- [ABImageClient](addressbook/abimageclient.md)
- [ABRecord](addressbook/abrecord.md)