This section describes the various ways to create a query with Spring Data JPA.
The JPA module supports defining a query manually as a String or having it being derived from the method name.
Derived queries with the predicates IsStartingWith, StartingWith, StartsWith, IsEndingWith, EndingWith, EndsWith,
IsNotContaining, NotContaining, NotContains, IsContaining, Containing, Contains the respective arguments for these queries will get sanitized.
This means if the arguments actually contain characters recognized by LIKE as wildcards these will get escaped so they match only as literals.
The escape character used can be configured by setting the escapeCharacter of the @EnableJpaRepositories annotation.
Compare with Using SpEL Expressions.
Although getting a query derived from the method name is quite convenient, one might face the situation in which either the method name parser does not support the keyword one wants to use or the method name would get unnecessarily ugly. So you can either use JPA named queries through a naming convention (see Using JPA Named Queries for more information) or rather annotate your query method with @Query (see Using @Query for details).
Generally, the query creation mechanism for JPA works as described in {spring-data-commons-docs-url}/repositories/query-methods.html[Query Methods]. The following example shows what a JPA query method translates into:
public interface UserRepository extends Repository<User, Long> {
List<User> findByEmailAddressAndLastname(String emailAddress, String lastname);
}We create a query using the JPA criteria API from this, but, essentially, this translates into the following query: select u from User u where u.emailAddress = ?1 and u.lastname = ?2. Spring Data JPA does a property check and traverses nested properties, as described in Property Expressions.
The following table describes the keywords supported for JPA and what a method containing that keyword translates to:
| Keyword | Sample | JPQL snippet |
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Note
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In and NotIn also take any subclass of Collection as a parameter as well as arrays or varargs. For other syntactical versions of the same logical operator, check Repository query keywords.
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Warning
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However, that latter query would narrow the focus to just
What is the point of this query anyway? To find the number of people with a given last name? To find the number of distinct people with that binding last name?
To find the number of distinct last names? (That last one is an entirely different query!)
Using |
Annotation-based configuration has the advantage of not needing another configuration file to be edited, lowering maintenance effort. You pay for that benefit by the need to recompile your domain class for every new query declaration.
@Entity
@NamedQuery(name = "User.findByEmailAddress",
query = "select u from User u where u.emailAddress = ?1")
public class User {
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Note
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The examples use the <named-query /> element and @NamedQuery annotation. The queries for these configuration elements have to be defined in the JPA query language. Of course, you can use <named-native-query /> or @NamedNativeQuery too. These elements let you define the query in native SQL by losing the database platform independence.
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To use XML configuration, add the necessary <named-query /> element to the orm.xml JPA configuration file located in the META-INF folder of your classpath. Automatic invocation of named queries is enabled by using some defined naming convention. For more details, see below.
<named-query name="User.findByLastname">
<query>select u from User u where u.lastname = ?1</query>
</named-query>The query has a special name that is used to resolve it at runtime.
To allow these named queries, specify the UserRepository as follows:
public interface UserRepository extends JpaRepository<User, Long> {
List<User> findByLastname(String lastname);
User findByEmailAddress(String emailAddress);
}Spring Data tries to resolve a call to these methods to a named query, starting with the simple name of the configured domain class, followed by the method name separated by a dot. So the preceding example would use the named queries defined earlier instead of trying to create a query from the method name.
Using named queries to declare queries for entities is a valid approach and works fine for a small number of queries. As the queries themselves are tied to the Java method that runs them, you can actually bind them directly by using the Spring Data JPA @Query annotation rather than annotating them to the domain class. This frees the domain class from persistence specific information and co-locates the query to the repository interface.
Queries annotated to the query method take precedence over queries defined using @NamedQuery or named queries declared in orm.xml.
The following example shows a query created with the @Query annotation:
@Querypublic interface UserRepository extends JpaRepository<User, Long> {
@Query("select u from User u where u.emailAddress = ?1")
User findByEmailAddress(String emailAddress);
}Sometimes, no matter how many features you try to apply, it seems impossible to get Spring Data JPA to apply every thing
you’d like to a query before it is sent to the EntityManager.
You have the ability to get your hands on the query, right before it’s sent to the EntityManager and "rewrite" it. That is,
you can make any alterations at the last moment.
@Querypublic interface MyRepository extends JpaRepository<User, Long> {
@NativeQuery(value = "select original_user_alias.* from SD_USER original_user_alias",
queryRewriter = MyQueryRewriter.class)
List<User> findByNativeQuery(String param);
@Query(value = "select original_user_alias from User original_user_alias",
queryRewriter = MyQueryRewriter.class)
List<User> findByNonNativeQuery(String param);
}This example shows both a native (pure SQL) rewriter as well as a JPQL query, both leveraging the same QueryRewriter.
In this scenario, Spring Data JPA will look for a bean registered in the application context of the corresponding type.
You can write a query rewriter like this:
QueryRewriterpublic class MyQueryRewriter implements QueryRewriter {
@Override
public String rewrite(String query, Sort sort) {
return query.replaceAll("original_user_alias", "rewritten_user_alias");
}
}You have to ensure your QueryRewriter is registered in the application context, whether it’s by applying one of Spring Framework’s
@Component-based annotations, or having it as part of a @Bean method inside an @Configuration class.
Another option is to have the repository itself implement the interface.
QueryRewriterpublic interface MyRepository extends JpaRepository<User, Long>, QueryRewriter {
@Query(value = "select original_user_alias.* from SD_USER original_user_alias",
nativeQuery = true,
queryRewriter = MyRepository.class)
List<User> findByNativeQuery(String param);
@Query(value = "select original_user_alias from User original_user_alias",
queryRewriter = MyRepository.class)
List<User> findByNonNativeQuery(String param);
@Override
default String rewrite(String query, Sort sort) {
return query.replaceAll("original_user_alias", "rewritten_user_alias");
}
}Depending on what you’re doing with your QueryRewriter, it may be advisable to have more than one, each registered with the
application context.
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Note
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In a CDI-based environment, Spring Data JPA will search the BeanManager for instances of your implementation of
QueryRewriter.
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The query running mechanism for manually defined queries created with @Query allows the definition of advanced LIKE expressions inside the query definition, as shown in the following example:
like expressions in @Querypublic interface UserRepository extends JpaRepository<User, Long> {
@Query("select u from User u where u.firstname like %?1")
List<User> findByFirstnameEndsWith(String firstname);
}In the preceding example, the LIKE delimiter character (%) is recognized, and the query is transformed into a valid JPQL query (removing the %). Upon running the query, the parameter passed to the method call gets augmented with the previously recognized LIKE pattern.
Using the @NativeQuery annotation allows running native queries, as shown in the following example:
public interface UserRepository extends JpaRepository<User, Long> {
@NativeQuery(value = "SELECT * FROM USERS WHERE EMAIL_ADDRESS = ?1")
User findByEmailAddress(String emailAddress);
}|
Note
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The @NativeQuery annotation is mostly a composed annotation for @Query(nativeQuery=true) but it also provides additional attributes such as sqlResultSetMapping to leverage JPA’s @SqlResultSetMapping(…).
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Note
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Spring Data can rewrite simple queries for pagination and sorting.
More complex queries require either JSqlParser to be on the class path or a countQuery declared in your code.
See the example below for more details.
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@NativeQuerypublic interface UserRepository extends JpaRepository<User, Long> {
@NativeQuery(value = "SELECT * FROM USERS WHERE LASTNAME = ?1",
countQuery = "SELECT count(*) FROM USERS WHERE LASTNAME = ?1")
Page<User> findByLastname(String lastname, Pageable pageable);
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Tip
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It is possible to disable usage of Valid values are (case-insensitive):
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A similar approach also works with named native queries, by adding the .count suffix to a copy of your query. You probably need to register a result set mapping for your count query, though.
Next to obtaining mapped results, native queries allow you to read the raw Tuple from the database by choosing a Map container as the method’s return type.
The resulting map contains key/value pairs representing the actual database column name and the value.
public interface UserRepository extends JpaRepository<User, Long> {
@NativeQuery("SELECT * FROM USERS WHERE EMAIL_ADDRESS = ?1")
Map<String, Object> findRawMapByEmail(String emailAddress); (1)
@NativeQuery("SELECT * FROM USERS WHERE LASTNAME = ?1")
List<Map<String, Object>> findRawMapByLastname(String lastname); (2)
}-
Single
Mapresult backed by aTuple. -
Multiple
Mapresults backed byTuples.
Sorting can be done by either providing a PageRequest or by using Sort directly. The properties actually used within the Order instances of Sort need to match your domain model, which means they need to resolve to either a property or an alias used within the query. The JPQL defines this as a state field path expression.
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Note
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Using any non-referenceable path expression leads to an Exception.
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However, using Sort together with @Query lets you sneak in non-path-checked Order instances containing functions within the ORDER BY clause. This is possible because the Order is appended to the given query string. By default, Spring Data JPA rejects any Order instance containing function calls, but you can use JpaSort.unsafe to add potentially unsafe ordering.
The following example uses Sort and JpaSort, including an unsafe option on JpaSort:
Sort and JpaSortpublic interface UserRepository extends JpaRepository<User, Long> {
@Query("select u from User u where u.lastname like ?1%")
List<User> findByAndSort(String lastname, Sort sort);
@Query("select u.id, LENGTH(u.firstname) as fn_len from User u where u.lastname like ?1%")
List<Object[]> findByAsArrayAndSort(String lastname, Sort sort);
}
repo.findByAndSort("lannister", Sort.by("firstname")); (1)
repo.findByAndSort("stark", Sort.by("LENGTH(firstname)")); (2)
repo.findByAndSort("targaryen", JpaSort.unsafe("LENGTH(firstname)")); (3)
repo.findByAsArrayAndSort("bolton", Sort.by("fn_len")); (4)-
Valid
Sortexpression pointing to property in domain model. -
Invalid
Sortcontaining function call. Throws Exception. -
Valid
Sortcontaining explicitly unsafeOrder. -
Valid
Sortexpression pointing to aliased function.
When working with large data sets, scrolling can help to process those results efficiently without loading all results into memory.
You have multiple options to consume large query results:
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Paging. You have learned in the previous chapter about
PageableandPageRequest. -
Offset-based scrolling. This is a lighter variant than paging because it does not require the total result count.
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Keyset-baset scrolling. This method avoids the shortcomings of offset-based result retrieval by leveraging database indexes.
Read more on which method to use best for your particular arrangement.
You can use the Scroll API with query methods, Query-by-Example, and Querydsl.
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Note
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Scrolling with String-based query methods is not yet supported.
Scrolling is also not supported using stored @Procedure query methods.
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By default, Spring Data JPA uses position-based parameter binding, as described in all the preceding examples.
This makes query methods a little error-prone when refactoring regarding the parameter position.
To solve this issue, you can use @Param annotation to give a method parameter a concrete name and bind the name in the query, as shown in the following example:
public interface UserRepository extends JpaRepository<User, Long> {
@Query("select u from User u where u.firstname = :firstname or u.lastname = :lastname")
User findByLastnameOrFirstname(@Param("lastname") String lastname,
@Param("firstname") String firstname);
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Note
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The method parameters are switched according to their order in the defined query. |
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Note
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As of version 4, Spring fully supports Java 8’s parameter name discovery based on the -parameters compiler flag. By using this flag in your build as an alternative to debug information, you can omit the @Param annotation for named parameters.
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As of Spring Data JPA release 1.4, we support the usage of restricted SpEL template expressions in manually defined queries that are defined with @Query. Upon the query being run, these expressions are evaluated against a predefined set of variables. Spring Data JPA supports a variable called entityName. Its usage is select x from #{#entityName} x. It inserts the entityName of the domain type associated with the given repository. The entityName is resolved as follows: If the domain type has set the name property on the @Entity annotation, it is used. Otherwise, the simple class-name of the domain type is used.
The following example demonstrates one use case for the #{#entityName} expression in a query string where you want to define a repository interface with a query method and a manually defined query:
@Entity
public class User {
@Id
@GeneratedValue
Long id;
String lastname;
}
public interface UserRepository extends JpaRepository<User,Long> {
@Query("select u from #{#entityName} u where u.lastname = ?1")
List<User> findByLastname(String lastname);
}To avoid stating the actual entity name in the query string of a @Query annotation, you can use the #{#entityName} variable.
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Note
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The entityName can be customized by using the @Entity annotation. Customizations in orm.xml are not supported for the SpEL expressions.
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Of course, you could have just used User in the query declaration directly, but that would require you to change the query as well. The reference to #entityName picks up potential future remappings of the User class to a different entity name (for example, by using @Entity(name = "MyUser").
Another use case for the #{#entityName} expression in a query string is if you want to define a generic repository interface with specialized repository interfaces for a concrete domain type. To not repeat the definition of custom query methods on the concrete interfaces, you can use the entity name expression in the query string of the @Query annotation in the generic repository interface, as shown in the following example:
@MappedSuperclass
public abstract class AbstractMappedType {
…
String attribute;
}
@Entity
public class ConcreteType extends AbstractMappedType { … }
@NoRepositoryBean
public interface MappedTypeRepository<T extends AbstractMappedType>
extends Repository<T, Long> {
@Query("select t from #{#entityName} t where t.attribute = ?1")
List<T> findAllByAttribute(String attribute);
}
public interface ConcreteRepository
extends MappedTypeRepository<ConcreteType> { … }In the preceding example, the MappedTypeRepository interface is the common parent interface for a few domain types extending AbstractMappedType. It also defines the generic findAllByAttribute(…) method, which can be used on instances of the specialized repository interfaces. If you now invoke findByAllAttribute(…) on ConcreteRepository, the query becomes select t from ConcreteType t where t.attribute = ?1.
SpEL expressions to manipulate arguments may also be used to manipulate method arguments. In these SpEL expressions the entity name is not available, but the arguments are. They can be accessed by name or index as demonstrated in the following example.
@Query("select u from User u where u.firstname = ?1 and u.firstname=?#{[0]} and u.emailAddress = ?#{principal.emailAddress}")
List<User> findByFirstnameAndCurrentUserWithCustomQuery(String firstname);For like-conditions one often wants to append % to the beginning or the end of a String valued parameter.
This can be done by appending or prefixing a bind parameter marker or a SpEL expression with %.
Again the following example demonstrates this.
@Query("select u from User u where u.lastname like %:#{[0]}% and u.lastname like %:lastname%")
List<User> findByLastnameWithSpelExpression(@Param("lastname") String lastname);When using like-conditions with values that are coming from a not secure source the values should be sanitized so they can’t contain any wildcards and thereby allow attackers to select more data than they should be able to.
For this purpose the escape(String) method is made available in the SpEL context.
It prefixes all instances of _ and % in the first argument with the single character from the second argument.
In combination with the escape clause of the like expression available in JPQL and standard SQL this allows easy cleaning of bind parameters.
@Query("select u from User u where u.firstname like %?#{escape([0])}% escape ?#{escapeCharacter()}")
List<User> findContainingEscaped(String namePart);Given this method declaration in a repository interface findContainingEscaped("Peter_") will find Peter_Parker but not Peter Parker.
The escape character used can be configured by setting the escapeCharacter of the @EnableJpaRepositories annotation.
Note that the method escape(String) available in the SpEL context will only escape the SQL and JPQL standard wildcards _ and %.
If the underlying database or the JPA implementation supports additional wildcards these will not get escaped.
Spring Data JPA offers many ways to build queries. But sometimes, your query may simply be too complicated for the techniques offered. In that situation, consider:
-
If you haven’t already, simply write the query yourself using
@Query. -
If that doesn’t fit your needs, consider implementing a custom implementation. This lets you register a method in your repository while leaving the implementation completely up to you. This gives you the ability to:
-
Talk directly to the
EntityManager(writing pure HQL/JPQL/EQL/native SQL or using the Criteria API) -
Leverage Spring Framework’s
JdbcTemplate(native SQL) -
Use another 3rd-party database toolkit.
-
-
Another option is putting your query inside the database and then using either Spring Data JPA’s
@StoredProcedureannotation or if it’s a database function using the@Queryannotation and invoking it with aCALL.
These tactics may be most effective when you need maximum control of your query, while still letting Spring Data JPA provide resource management.
All the previous sections describe how to declare queries to access a given entity or collection of entities.
You can add custom modifying behavior by using the custom method facilities described in {spring-data-commons-docs-url}/repositories/custom-implementations.html[Custom Implementations for Spring Data Repositories].
As this approach is feasible for comprehensive custom functionality, you can modify queries that only need parameter binding by annotating the query method with @Modifying, as shown in the following example:
@Modifying
@Query("update User u set u.firstname = ?1 where u.lastname = ?2")
int setFixedFirstnameFor(String firstname, String lastname);Doing so triggers the query annotated to the method as an updating query instead of a selecting one. As the EntityManager might contain outdated entities after the execution of the modifying query, we do not automatically clear it (see the JavaDoc of EntityManager.clear() for details), since this effectively drops all non-flushed changes still pending in the EntityManager.
If you wish the EntityManager to be cleared automatically, you can set the @Modifying annotation’s clearAutomatically attribute to true.
The @Modifying annotation is only relevant in combination with the @Query annotation.
Derived query methods or custom methods do not require this annotation.
Spring Data JPA also supports derived delete queries that let you avoid having to declare the JPQL query explicitly, as shown in the following example:
interface UserRepository extends Repository<User, Long> {
void deleteByRoleId(long roleId);
@Modifying
@Query("delete from User u where u.role.id = ?1")
void deleteInBulkByRoleId(long roleId);
}Although the deleteByRoleId(…) method looks like it basically produces the same result as the deleteInBulkByRoleId(…), there is an important difference between the two method declarations in terms of the way they are run.
As the name suggests, the latter method issues a single JPQL query (the one defined in the annotation) against the database.
This means even currently loaded instances of User do not see lifecycle callbacks invoked.
To make sure lifecycle queries are actually invoked, an invocation of deleteByRoleId(…) runs a query and then deletes the returned instances one by one, so that the persistence provider can actually invoke @PreRemove callbacks on those entities.
In fact, a derived delete query is a shortcut for running the query and then calling CrudRepository.delete(Iterable<User> users) on the result and keeping behavior in sync with the implementations of other delete(…) methods in CrudRepository.
To apply JPA query hints to the queries declared in your repository interface, you can use the @QueryHints annotation. It takes an array of JPA @QueryHint annotations plus a boolean flag to potentially disable the hints applied to the additional count query triggered when applying pagination, as shown in the following example:
public interface UserRepository extends Repository<User, Long> {
@QueryHints(value = { @QueryHint(name = "name", value = "value")},
forCounting = false)
Page<User> findByLastname(String lastname, Pageable pageable);
}The preceding declaration would apply the configured @QueryHint for that actually query but omit applying it to the count query triggered to calculate the total number of pages.
Sometimes, you need to debug a query based upon database performance.
The query your database administrator shows you may look VERY different than what you wrote using @Query, or it may look
nothing like what you presume Spring Data JPA has generated regarding a custom finder or if you used query by example.
To make this process easier, you can insert custom comments into almost any JPA operation, whether its a query or other operation
by applying the @Meta annotation.
@Meta annotation to repository operationspublic interface RoleRepository extends JpaRepository<Role, Integer> {
@Meta(comment = "find roles by name")
List<Role> findByName(String name);
@Override
@Meta(comment = "find roles using QBE")
<S extends Role> List<S> findAll(Example<S> example);
@Meta(comment = "count roles for a given name")
long countByName(String name);
@Override
@Meta(comment = "exists based on QBE")
<S extends Role> boolean exists(Example<S> example);
}This sample repository has a mixture of custom finders as well as overriding the inherited operations from JpaRepository.
Either way, the @Meta annotation lets you add a comment that will be inserted into queries before they are sent to the database.
It’s also important to note that this feature isn’t confined solely to queries. It extends to the count and exists operations.
And while not shown, it also extends to certain delete operations.
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Important
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While we have attempted to apply this feature everywhere possible, some operations of the underlying EntityManager don’t support comments. For example, entityManager.createQuery() is clearly documented as supporting comments, but entityManager.find() operations do not.
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Neither JPQL logging nor SQL logging is a standard in JPA, so each provider requires custom configuration, as shown the sections below.
To activate query comments in Hibernate, you must set hibernate.use_sql_comments to true.
If you are using Java-based configuration settings, this can be done like this:
@Bean
public Properties jpaProperties() {
Properties properties = new Properties();
properties.setProperty("hibernate.use_sql_comments", "true");
return properties;
}If you have a persistence.xml file, you can apply it there:
persistence.xml-based configuration<persistence-unit name="my-persistence-unit">
...registered classes...
<properties>
<property name="hibernate.use_sql_comments" value="true" />
</properties>
</persistence-unit>Finally, if you are using Spring Boot, then you can set it up inside your application.properties file:
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.use_sql_comments=true
To activate query comments in EclipseLink, you must set eclipselink.logging.level.sql to FINE.
If you are using Java-based configuration settings, this can be done like this:
@Bean
public Properties jpaProperties() {
Properties properties = new Properties();
properties.setProperty("eclipselink.logging.level.sql", "FINE");
return properties;
}If you have a persistence.xml file, you can apply it there:
persistence.xml-based configuration<persistence-unit name="my-persistence-unit">
...registered classes...
<properties>
<property name="eclipselink.logging.level.sql" value="FINE" />
</properties>
</persistence-unit>Finally, if you are using Spring Boot, then you can set it up inside your application.properties file:
spring.jpa.properties.eclipselink.logging.level.sql=FINE
The JPA 2.1 specification introduced support for specifying Fetch- and LoadGraphs that we also support with the @EntityGraph annotation, which lets you reference a @NamedEntityGraph definition. You can use that annotation on an entity to configure the fetch plan of the resulting query. The type (Fetch or Load) of the fetching can be configured by using the type attribute on the @EntityGraph annotation. See the JPA 2.1 Spec 3.7.4 for further reference.
The following example shows how to define a named entity graph on an entity:
@Entity
@NamedEntityGraph(name = "GroupInfo.detail",
attributeNodes = @NamedAttributeNode("members"))
public class GroupInfo {
// default fetch mode is lazy.
@ManyToMany
List<GroupMember> members = new ArrayList<GroupMember>();
…
}The following example shows how to reference a named entity graph on a repository query method:
public interface GroupRepository extends CrudRepository<GroupInfo, String> {
@EntityGraph(value = "GroupInfo.detail", type = EntityGraphType.LOAD)
GroupInfo getByGroupName(String name);
}It is also possible to define ad hoc entity graphs by using @EntityGraph. The provided attributePaths are translated into the according EntityGraph without needing to explicitly add @NamedEntityGraph to your domain types, as shown in the following example:
public interface GroupRepository extends CrudRepository<GroupInfo, String> {
@EntityGraph(attributePaths = { "members" })
GroupInfo getByGroupName(String name);
}{commons}@data-commons::page$repositories/scrolling.adoc