Spring Data JPA @NamedQuery and @NamedQueries Example

In the previous article, we discussed how to create a database query using a method name. In this article, we will learn to create database queries by using named queries.

Creating Named Queries

We can specify named queries with Spring Data JPA by using a properties file, annotations, or the orm.xml file. In this article, we will focus on creating named queries using @NamedQuery and @NamedQueries annotations.

Let's develop a complete example to demonstrate the usage of @NamedQuery and @NamedQueries using the Spring Boot application which quickly bootstraps with autoconfiguration.

Create Spring Boot Project

There are many ways to create a Spring Boot application. You can refer below articles to create a Spring Boot application.

>> Create Spring Boot Project With Spring Initializer
>>Create Spring Boot Project in Spring Tool Suite [STS]

The pom.xml File

Here is the pom.xml file for your reference:

The Spring Boot Maven plugin provides many convenient features:

It collects all the jars on the classpath and builds a single, runnable "über-jar", which makes it more convenient to execute and transport your service.
It searches for the public static void main() method to flag as a runnable class.
It provides a built-in dependency resolver that sets the version number to match Spring Boot dependencies. You can override any version you wish, but it will default to Boot’s chosen set of versions.

JPA Entity - User.java

In this example, we store User objects, annotated as a JPA entity.


import java.util.Date;

import jakarta.persistence.*;

@Entity
@Table(name = "users")
@NamedQuery(name = "User.findByEmailAddress", query = "select u from User u where u.emailAddress = ?1")
@NamedQueries(value = {
    @NamedQuery(name = "User.findByLastname", query = "select u from User u where u.lastname = ?1")
})
public class User {
    private long id;
    private String firstname;
    private String lastname;
    private Date startDate;
    private String emailAddress;
    private int age;
    private int active;

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
    public long getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(long id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    public String getFirstname() {
        return firstname;
    }

    public void setFirstname(String firstname) {
        this.firstname = firstname;
    }

    public String getLastname() {
        return lastname;
    }

    public void setLastname(String lastname) {
        this.lastname = lastname;
    }

    public Date getStartDate() {
        return startDate;
    }

    public void setStartDate(Date startDate) {
        this.startDate = startDate;
    }

    public int getAge() {
        return age;
    }

    public void setAge(int age) {
        this.age = age;
    }

    public int getActive() {
        return active;
    }

    public void setActive(int active) {
        this.active = active;
    }

    public String getEmailAddress() {
        return emailAddress;
    }

    public void setEmailAddress(String emailAddress) {
        this.emailAddress = emailAddress;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "User [id=" + id + ", firstname=" + firstname + ", lastname=" + lastname + ", startDate=" + startDate +
            ", emailAddress=" + emailAddress + ", age=" + age + ", active=" + active + "]";
    }
}

The User class is annotated with @Entity, indicating that it is a JPA entity.
The User’s id property is annotated with @Id so that JPA will recognize it as the object’s ID. The id property is also annotated with @GeneratedValue to indicate that the ID should be generated automatically.

@NamedQuery

Specifies a static, named query in the Java Persistence query language. Query names are scoped to the persistence unit. The NamedQuery annotation can be applied to an entity or mapped superclass.


@Entity
@Table(name = "users")
@NamedQuery(name = "User.findByEmailAddress", query = "select u from User u where u.emailAddress = ?1")
public class User {
}

@NamedQueries

Specifies multiple named Java Persistence query language queries. Query names are scoped to the persistence unit. The NamedQueries annotation can be applied to an entity or mapped superclass.


@Entity
@Table(name = "users")
@NamedQueries(value = {
  @NamedQuery(name = "User.findByLastname", query = "select u from User u where u.lastname = ?1") })
public class User {
}

Spring Data JPA Repository - UserRepository.java


import java.util.List;

import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.JpaRepository;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Repository;

import net.guides.springboot2.springboottestingexamples.model.User;

/**
 * UserRepository demonstrates the method name query generation.
 * 
 * @author Ramesh Fadatare
 *
 */
@Repository
public interface UserRepository extends JpaRepository < User, Long > {
    User findByEmailAddress(String emailAddress);

    List < User > findByLastname(String lastname);
}

Create an Application class

Here you create an Application class with all the components.


package net.guides.springboot2.springboottestingexamples;

import java.util.Date;
import java.util.List;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.CommandLineRunner;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

import net.guides.springboot2.springboottestingexamples.model.User;
import net.guides.springboot2.springboottestingexamples.repository.UserRepository;

@SpringBootApplication
public class Application implements CommandLineRunner {

    @Autowired
    private UserRepository userRepository;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
    }

    @Override
    public void run(String...args) throws Exception {
        User user = new User();
        user.setActive(1);
        user.setAge(28);
        user.setEmailAddress("ramesh24@gmail.com");
        user.setFirstname("Ramesh");
        user.setLastname("Fadatare");
        user.setStartDate(new Date());
        user = userRepository.save(user);

        System.out.println("-------------------------------------:: " + user.getId());

        System.out.println(" ---------------@NamedQuery ---------------------");
        System.out.println("--------------findByEmailAddress -----------------");

        User user2 = userRepository.findByEmailAddress("ramesh24@gmail.com");
        System.out.println(user2.toString());

        System.out.println(" ---------------@NamedQuery ---------------------");
        System.out.println("--------------findByLastname -----------------");

        List < User > user3 = userRepository.findByLastname("Fadatare");
        System.out.println(user3.get(0).toString());
    }
}

Note that we have used UserRepository methods to demonstrate @NamedQuery and @NamedQueries annotations.

Running Application

We are using Maven so we can run the application using ./mvnw spring-boot:run. Or you can build the JAR file with ./mvnw clean package. Then you can run the JAR file:

java -jar target/spring-data-jpa-example-0.1.0.jar