11.4.8. About Qualified Path Expressions

It was previously stated that collection-valued associations actually refer to the values of that collection. Based on the type of collection, there are also available a set of explicit qualification expressions.

Table 11.9. Qualified Path Expressions

Expression Description
VALUE
Refers to the collection value. Same as not specifying a qualifier. Useful to explicitly show intent. Valid for any type of collection-valued reference.
INDEX
According to HQL rules, this is valid for both Maps and Lists which specify a javax.persistence.OrderColumn annotation to refer to the Map key or the List position (aka the OrderColumn value). JPQL however, reserves this for use in the List case and adds KEY for the MAP case. Applications interested in JPA provider portability should be aware of this distinction.
KEY
Valid only for Maps. Refers to the map's key. If the key is itself an entity, can be further navigated.
ENTRY
Only valid only for Maps. Refers to the Map's logical java.util.Map.Entry tuple (the combination of its key and value). ENTRY is only valid as a terminal path and only valid in the select clause.

Example 11.9. Qualified Collection References Example

// Product.images is a Map<String,String> : key = a name, value = file path

// select all the image file paths (the map value) for Product#123
select i
from Product p
    join p.images i
where p.id = 123

// same as above
select value(i)
from Product p
    join p.images i
where p.id = 123

// select all the image names (the map key) for Product#123
select key(i)
from Product p
    join p.images i
where p.id = 123

// select all the image names and file paths (the 'Map.Entry') for Product#123
select entry(i)
from Product p
    join p.images i
where p.id = 123

// total the value of the initial line items for all orders for a customer
select sum( li.amount )
from Customer c
        join c.orders o
        join o.lineItems li
where c.id = 123
  and index(li) = 1