The JPA EntityManager createNativeQuery is a Magic Wand

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Introduction

I found this very interesting question on the Hibernate forum, and, in this post, I want to demonstrate to you why native SQL queries are awesome.

Domain Model

Considering we have the following entities:

The AnimalStable entity is represented by a database join table that links both the Animal and the Stable entities. The registered_on property tells us when the Animal was registered with a given Stable.

And, we have 3 animal table rows:

| id | name  |
|----|-------|
| 1  | Linda |
| 2  | Berta |
| 3  | Siggi |

As well as 2 stable rows:

| id | title    |
|----|----------|
| 1  | Stable 1 |
| 2  | Stable 2 |

And the following 6 animal_stable entries:

| id | registered_on | animal_id | stable_id |
|----|---------------|-----------|-----------|
| 1  | 2017-01-10    | 1         | 1         |
| 2  | 2017-01-11    | 1         | 2         |
| 3  | 2017-01-11    | 2         | 1         |
| 4  | 2017-01-12    | 1         | 1         |
| 5  | 2017-01-13    | 1         | 2         |
| 6  | 2017-01-14    | 3         | 1         |

The problem

We want to know how many animal(s) are in a particular stable on a certain date. For this, we need to take into consideration the previous registrations and make sure that we are accounting for the latest stable change of every particular animal.

So, if we run the query for 2017-01-12 and for the first stable, the result set should contain two entries: Linda and Berta.

Native SQL to the rescue!

Now, the question is looking for a solution with JPQL or HQL. However, entity queries are meant to select entities using a simple syntax, and so we lack support for Window Functions or Derived Tables.

But Hibernate and JPA have long been offering support for native SQL queries, and there is so much you can do if you don’t limit yourself to running entity queries only.

With Window functions

Using Window functions, we can solve this problem using the following query:

List<Animal> animals = entityManager.createNativeQuery("""
    select distinct a.id, a.name
    from (
        select
        animal_id,
        last_value(stable_id) over (
            partition by a_s.animal_id
            order by a_s.registered_on
            range between unbounded preceding and
            unbounded following
        ) as last_stable_id
        from animal_stable a_s
        where a_s.registered_on <= :date
    ) a_s1
    join animal a on a.id = a_s1.animal_id
    where a_s1.last_stable_id = :stable
    """, Animal.class)
.setParameter("stable", stable1.id)
.setParameter("date",
    Date.from(
        LocalDate.of(2017, 1, 12).atStartOfDay()
        .toInstant(ZoneOffset.UTC)),
    TemporalType.DATE)
.getResultList();

What’s nice about this query is that we need to traverse the animal_stable table only once since the window function allows us to fetch the last stable_id of each particular animal entry.

Without Window functions

Assuming you are using a database that does not support Window Functions, then you can run the following query:

List<Animal> animals = entityManager.createNativeQuery("""
    select a.id, a.name
    from animal_stable a_s1
    join (
       select
           animal_id,
           max(registered_on) max_registered_on
       from animal_stable a_s
       where a_s.registered_on <= :date
       group by animal_id 
    ) a_s2
    on a_s1.animal_id = a_s2.animal_id
       and a_s1.registered_on = a_s2.max_registered_on
    join animal a on a.id = a_s1.animal_id
    where a_s1.stable_id = :stable
    order by a_s1.animal_id
    """, Animal.class)
.setParameter("stable", stable1.id)
.setParameter("date",
    Date.from(
        LocalDate.of(2017, 1, 12).atStartOfDay()
        .toInstant(ZoneOffset.UTC)),
    TemporalType.DATE)
.getResultList();

Unlike the previous query, this one requires an additional join with a secondary query that determines the maximum registration for each particular animal.

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Conclusion

Native queries are just awesome. You can take advantage of any feature your underlying database has to offer. Both the aforementioned queries return entities, so native queries are rather flexible too. Most often, you’d probably use a DTO projection since it performs better than fetching whole entities.

For this purpose, EntityManager.createNativeQuery is a magic wand, and you should work your magic with it.

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