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Chapter 17. Native SQL

You can also express queries in the native SQL dialect of your database. This is useful if you want to utilize database-specific features such as query hints or the CONNECT keyword in Oracle. It also provides a clean migration path from a direct SQL/JDBC based application to Hibernate.
Hibernate3 allows you to specify handwritten SQL, including stored procedures, for all create, update, delete, and load operations.

17.1. Using a SQLQuery

Execution of native SQL queries is controlled via the SQLQuery interface, which is obtained by calling Session.createSQLQuery(). The following sections describe how to use this API for querying.

17.1.1. Scalar queries

The most basic SQL query is to get a list of scalars (values). 
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS").list();
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT ID, NAME, BIRTHDATE FROM CATS").list();
These will return a List of Object arrays (Object[]) with scalar values for each column in the CATS table. Hibernate will use ResultSetMetadata to deduce the actual order and types of the returned scalar values.
To avoid the overhead of using ResultSetMetadata, or simply to be more explicit in what is returned, one can use addScalar(): 
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS")
 .addScalar("ID", Hibernate.LONG)
 .addScalar("NAME", Hibernate.STRING)
 .addScalar("BIRTHDATE", Hibernate.DATE);
This query specified:
  • the SQL query string
  • the columns and types to return
This will return Object arrays, but now it will not use ResultSetMetadata but will instead explicitly get the ID, NAME and BIRTHDATE column as respectively a Long, String and a Short from the underlying resultset. This also means that only these three columns will be returned, even though the query is using * and could return more than the three listed columns.
It is possible to leave out the type information for all or some of the scalars. 
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS")
 .addScalar("ID", Hibernate.LONG)
 .addScalar("NAME")
 .addScalar("BIRTHDATE");
This is essentially the same query as before, but now ResultSetMetaData is used to determine the type of NAME and BIRTHDATE, where as the type of ID is explicitly specified.
How the java.sql.Types returned from ResultSetMetaData is mapped to Hibernate types is controlled by the Dialect. If a specific type is not mapped, or does not result in the expected type, it is possible to customize it via calls to registerHibernateType in the Dialect.

17.1.2. Entity queries

The above queries were all about returning scalar values, basically returning the "raw" values from the resultset. The following shows how to get entity objects from a native sql query via addEntity(). 
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS").addEntity(Cat.class);
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT ID, NAME, BIRTHDATE FROM CATS").addEntity(Cat.class);
This query specified:
  • the SQL query string
  • the entity returned by the query
Assuming that Cat is mapped as a class with the columns ID, NAME and BIRTHDATE the above queries will both return a List where each element is a Cat entity.
If the entity is mapped with a many-to-one to another entity it is required to also return this when performing the native query, otherwise a database specific "column not found" error will occur. The additional columns will automatically be returned when using the * notation, but we prefer to be explicit as in the following example for a many-to-one to a Dog: 
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT ID, NAME, BIRTHDATE, DOG_ID FROM CATS").addEntity(Cat.class);
This will allow cat.getDog() to function properly.

17.1.3. Handling associations and collections

It is possible to eagerly join in the Dog to avoid the possible extra roundtrip for initializing the proxy. This is done via the addJoin() method, which allows you to join in an association or collection. 
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT c.ID, NAME, BIRTHDATE, DOG_ID, D_ID, D_NAME FROM CATS c, DOGS d WHERE c.DOG_ID = d.D_ID")
 .addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
 .addJoin("dog", "cat.dog");
In this example, the returned Cat's will have their dog property fully initialized without any extra roundtrip to the database. Notice that you added an alias name ("cat") to be able to specify the target property path of the join. It is possible to do the same eager joining for collections, e.g. if the Cat had a one-to-many to Dog instead. 
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT ID, NAME, BIRTHDATE, D_ID, D_NAME, CAT_ID FROM CATS c, DOGS d WHERE c.ID = d.CAT_ID")
 .addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
 .addJoin("dog", "cat.dogs");
At this stage you are reaching the limits of what is possible with native queries, without starting to enhance the sql queries to make them usable in Hibernate. Problems can arise when returning multiple entities of the same type or when the default alias/column names are not enough.

17.1.4. Returning multiple entities

Until now, the result set column names are assumed to be the same as the column names specified in the mapping document. This can be problematic for SQL queries that join multiple tables, since the same column names can appear in more than one table.
Column alias injection is needed in the following query (which most likely will fail): 
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT c.*, m.*  FROM CATS c, CATS m WHERE c.MOTHER_ID = c.ID")
 .addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
 .addEntity("mother", Cat.class)
The query was intended to return two Cat instances per row: a cat and its mother. The query will, however, fail because there is a conflict of names; the instances are mapped to the same column names. Also, on some databases the returned column aliases will most likely be on the form "c.ID", "c.NAME", etc. which are not equal to the columns specified in the mappings ("ID" and "NAME").
The following form is not vulnerable to column name duplication: 
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT {cat.*}, {mother.*}  FROM CATS c, CATS m WHERE c.MOTHER_ID = c.ID")
 .addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
 .addEntity("mother", Cat.class)
This query specified:
  • the SQL query string, with placeholders for Hibernate to inject column aliases
  • the entities returned by the query
The {cat.*} and {mother.*} notation used above is a shorthand for "all properties". Alternatively, you can list the columns explicitly, but even in this case Hibernate injects the SQL column aliases for each property. The placeholder for a column alias is just the property name qualified by the table alias. In the following example, you retrieve Cats and their mothers from a different table (cat_log) to the one declared in the mapping metadata. You can even use the property aliases in the where clause. 
String sql = "SELECT ID as {c.id}, NAME as {c.name}, " + 
         "BIRTHDATE as {c.birthDate}, MOTHER_ID as {c.mother}, {mother.*} " +
         "FROM CAT_LOG c, CAT_LOG m WHERE {c.mother} = c.ID";

List loggedCats = sess.createSQLQuery(sql)
        .addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
        .addEntity("mother", Cat.class).list()

17.1.4.1. Alias and property references

In most cases the above alias injection is needed. For queries relating to more complex mappings, like composite properties, inheritance discriminators, collections etc., you can use specific aliases that allow Hibernate to inject the proper aliases.
The following table shows the different ways you can use the alias injection. Please note that the alias names in the result are simply examples; each alias will have a unique and probably different name when used.

Table 17.1. Alias injection names

DescriptionSyntaxExample
A simple property{[aliasname].[propertyname]A_NAME as {item.name}
A composite property{[aliasname].[componentname].[propertyname]}CURRENCY as {item.amount.currency}, VALUE as {item.amount.value}
Discriminator of an entity{[aliasname].class}DISC as {item.class}
All properties of an entity{[aliasname].*}{item.*}
A collection key{[aliasname].key}ORGID as {coll.key}
The id of an collection{[aliasname].id}EMPID as {coll.id}
The element of an collection{[aliasname].element}XID as {coll.element}
property of the element in the collection{[aliasname].element.[propertyname]}NAME as {coll.element.name}
All properties of the element in the collection{[aliasname].element.*}{coll.element.*}
All properties of the the collection{[aliasname].*}{coll.*}

17.1.5. Returning non-managed entities

It is possible to apply a ResultTransformer to native SQL queries, allowing it to return non-managed entities. 
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT NAME, BIRTHDATE FROM CATS")
        .setResultTransformer(Transformers.aliasToBean(CatDTO.class))
This query specified:
  • the SQL query string
  • a result transformer
The above query will return a list of CatDTO which has been instantiated and injected the values of NAME and BIRTHNAME into its corresponding properties or fields.

17.1.6. Handling inheritance

Native SQL queries which query for entities that are mapped as part of an inheritance must include all properties for the baseclass and all its subclasses.

17.1.7. Parameters

Native SQL queries support positional as well as named parameters: 
Query query = sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS WHERE NAME like ?").addEntity(Cat.class);
List pusList = query.setString(0, "Pus%").list();
     
query = sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS WHERE NAME like :name").addEntity(Cat.class);
List pusList = query.setString("name", "Pus%").list();