Spring Data JPA CrudRepository - save() Method

In this tutorial, we will learn how to use the Spring Data CrudRepository interface provided save() method with an example.

save() Method Overview

As the name depicts, the save() method allows us to save an entity to the DB. It belongs to the CrudRepository interface defined by Spring Data.

Saving an entity can be performed with the CrudRepository.save(...) method. It persists or merges the given entity by using the underlying JPA EntityManager. If the entity has not yet persisted, Spring Data JPA saves the entity with a call to the entityManager.persist(...) method. Otherwise, it calls the entityManager.merge(...) method to update the entity.

Maven Dependencies

Add the following maven dependencies to your Spring Boot project:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
</dependency>

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.mysql</groupId>
    <artifactId>mysql-connector-j</artifactId>
    <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>

Product Entity

Let's first create a Product entity that we are going to save into the database using the save() method:

package net.javaguides.springdatajpacourse.entity;

import org.hibernate.annotations.CreationTimestamp;
import org.hibernate.annotations.UpdateTimestamp;

import jakarta.persistence.*;
import java.math.BigDecimal;
import java.util.Date;

@Entity
@Table(name="products")
public class Product {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    @Column(name = "id")
    private Long id;

    @Column(name = "sku")
    private String sku;

    @Column(name = "name")
    private String name;

    @Column(name = "description")
    private String description;

    @Column(name = "price")
    private BigDecimal price;

    @Column(name = "image_url")
    private String imageUrl;

    @Column(name = "active")
    private boolean active;

    @Column(name = "date_created")
    @CreationTimestamp
    private Date dateCreated;

    @Column(name = "last_updated")
    @UpdateTimestamp
    private Date lastUpdated;

    public Long getId() {
        return id;
    }

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

    public String getSku() {
        return sku;
    }

    public void setSku(String sku) {
        this.sku = sku;
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public String getDescription() {
        return description;
    }

    public void setDescription(String description) {
        this.description = description;
    }

    public BigDecimal getPrice() {
        return price;
    }

    public void setPrice(BigDecimal price) {
        this.price = price;
    }

    public String getImageUrl() {
        return imageUrl;
    }

    public void setImageUrl(String imageUrl) {
        this.imageUrl = imageUrl;
    }

    public boolean isActive() {
        return active;
    }

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

    public Date getDateCreated() {
        return dateCreated;
    }

    public void setDateCreated(Date dateCreated) {
        this.dateCreated = dateCreated;
    }

    public Date getLastUpdated() {
        return lastUpdated;
    }

    public void setLastUpdated(Date lastUpdated) {
        this.lastUpdated = lastUpdated;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "Product{" +
                "id=" + id +
                ", sku='" + sku + '\'' +
                ", name='" + name + '\'' +
                ", description='" + description + '\'' +
                ", price=" + price +
                ", imageUrl='" + imageUrl + '\'' +
                ", active=" + active +
                ", dateCreated=" + dateCreated +
                ", lastUpdated=" + lastUpdated +
                '}';
    }
}

ProductRepository

Let's create ProductRepository which extends the CrudRepository interface. As we know that CrudRepository interface provides the save() method so our ProductRepository interface should extend to the CrudRepository interface to get all its methods:

import net.javaguides.springdatajpacourse.entity.Product;
import org.springframework.data.repository.CrudRepository;

public interface ProductRepository extends CrudRepository<Product, Long> {

}

Configure MySQL and Hibernate Properties

Let's use the MySQL database to store and retrieve the data in this example and we gonna use Hibernate properties to create and drop tables.

Open the application.properties file and add the following configuration to it:

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/ecommerce?useSSL=false
spring.datasource.username=root
spring.datasource.password=Mysql@123

spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.dialect = org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect

spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto = create-drop

spring.jpa.show-sql=true
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.format_sql=true

Make sure that you will create ecommerce database before running the Spring boot application. Also, change the MySQL username and password as per your MySQL installation on your machine.

Testing save() Method

In order to test the save() method, we gonna use CommandLineRunner.run() method to execute the testing code while the Spring boot application startup:

import net.javaguides.springdatajpacourse.entity.Product;
import net.javaguides.springdatajpacourse.repository.ProductRepository;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.CommandLineRunner;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

import java.math.BigDecimal;
import java.util.Date;

@SpringBootApplication
public class SpringDataJpaCourseApplication implements CommandLineRunner{

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

	@Autowired
	private ProductRepository productRepository;

	@Override
	public void run(String... args) throws Exception {
		Product product = new Product();
        product.setName("product 1");
        product.setDescription("product 1 desc");
        product.setPrice(new BigDecimal(100));
        product.setDateCreated(new Date());
        product.setLastUpdated(new Date());
        product.setSku("product 1 sku");
        product.setActive(true);
        product.setImageUrl("product1.png");

        // save product
        productRepository.save(product);
	}
}

After finished Spring boot application runs, you can able to see Hibernate generate an INSERT SQL statement in a console:

    Hibernate: 
    insert 
    into
        products
        (active, date_created, description, image_url, last_updated, name, price, sku) 
    values
        (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)