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Chapter 16. Native SQL

16.1. Using a SQLQuery
16.1.1. Scalar queries
16.1.2. Entity queries
16.1.3. Handling associations and collections
16.1.4. Returning multiple entities
16.1.5. Returning non-managed entities
16.1.6. Handling inheritance
16.1.7. Parameters
16.2. Named SQL queries
16.2.1. Using return-property to explicitly specify column/alias names
16.2.2. Using stored procedures for querying
16.3. Custom SQL for create, update and delete
16.4. Custom SQL for loading

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.

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.

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:

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.

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 {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()

Named SQL queries can be defined in the mapping document and called in exactly the same way as a named HQL query. In this case, you do not need to call addEntity().

<sql-query name="persons">
    <return alias="person" class="eg.Person"/>
    SELECT person.NAME AS {person.name},
           person.AGE AS {person.age},
           person.SEX AS {person.sex}
    FROM PERSON person
    WHERE person.NAME LIKE :namePattern
</sql-query>
List people = sess.getNamedQuery("persons")
    .setString("namePattern", namePattern)
    .setMaxResults(50)
    .list();

The <return-join> element is use to join associations and the <load-collection> element is used to define queries which initialize collections,

<sql-query name="personsWith">
    <return alias="person" class="eg.Person"/>
    <return-join alias="address" property="person.mailingAddress"/>
    SELECT person.NAME AS {person.name},
           person.AGE AS {person.age},
           person.SEX AS {person.sex},
           address.STREET AS {address.street},
           address.CITY AS {address.city},
           address.STATE AS {address.state},
           address.ZIP AS {address.zip}
    FROM PERSON person
    JOIN ADDRESS address
        ON person.ID = address.PERSON_ID AND address.TYPE='MAILING'
    WHERE person.NAME LIKE :namePattern
</sql-query>

A named SQL query may return a scalar value. You must declare the column alias and Hibernate type using the <return-scalar> element:

<sql-query name="mySqlQuery">
    <return-scalar column="name" type="string"/>
    <return-scalar column="age" type="long"/>
    SELECT p.NAME AS name,
           p.AGE AS age,
    FROM PERSON p WHERE p.NAME LIKE 'Hiber%'
</sql-query>

You can externalize the resultset mapping information in a <resultset> element which will allow you to either reuse them across several named queries or through the setResultSetMapping() API.

<resultset name="personAddress">
    <return alias="person" class="eg.Person"/>
    <return-join alias="address" property="person.mailingAddress"/>
</resultset>

<sql-query name="personsWith" resultset-ref="personAddress">
    SELECT person.NAME AS {person.name},
           person.AGE AS {person.age},
           person.SEX AS {person.sex},
           address.STREET AS {address.street},
           address.CITY AS {address.city},
           address.STATE AS {address.state},
           address.ZIP AS {address.zip}
    FROM PERSON person
    JOIN ADDRESS address
        ON person.ID = address.PERSON_ID AND address.TYPE='MAILING'
    WHERE person.NAME LIKE :namePattern
</sql-query>

You can, alternatively, use the resultset mapping information in your hbm files directly in java code.

List cats = sess.createSQLQuery(
        "select {cat.*}, {kitten.*} from cats cat, cats kitten where kitten.mother = cat.id"
    )
    .setResultSetMapping("catAndKitten")
    .list();

You can explicitly tell Hibernate what column aliases to use with <return-property>, instead of using the {}-syntax to let Hibernate inject its own aliases.For example:

<sql-query name="mySqlQuery">
    <return alias="person" class="eg.Person">
        <return-property name="name" column="myName"/>
        <return-property name="age" column="myAge"/>
        <return-property name="sex" column="mySex"/>
    </return>
    SELECT person.NAME AS myName,
           person.AGE AS myAge,
           person.SEX AS mySex,
    FROM PERSON person WHERE person.NAME LIKE :name
</sql-query>

<return-property> also works with multiple columns. This solves a limitation with the {}-syntax which cannot allow fine grained control of multi-column properties.

<sql-query name="organizationCurrentEmployments">
    <return alias="emp" class="Employment">
        <return-property name="salary">
            <return-column name="VALUE"/>
            <return-column name="CURRENCY"/>
        </return-property>
        <return-property name="endDate" column="myEndDate"/>
    </return>
        SELECT EMPLOYEE AS {emp.employee}, EMPLOYER AS {emp.employer},
        STARTDATE AS {emp.startDate}, ENDDATE AS {emp.endDate},
        REGIONCODE as {emp.regionCode}, EID AS {emp.id}, VALUE, CURRENCY
        FROM EMPLOYMENT
        WHERE EMPLOYER = :id AND ENDDATE IS NULL
        ORDER BY STARTDATE ASC
</sql-query>

In this example <return-property> was used in combination with the {}-syntax for injection. This allows users to choose how they want to refer column and properties.

If your mapping has a discriminator you must use <return-discriminator> to specify the discriminator column.

Hibernate3 provides support for queries via stored procedures and functions. Most of the following documentation is equivalent for both. The stored procedure/function must return a resultset as the first out-parameter to be able to work with Hibernate. An example of such a stored function in Oracle 9 and higher is as follows:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION selectAllEmployments
    RETURN SYS_REFCURSOR
AS
    st_cursor SYS_REFCURSOR;
BEGIN
    OPEN st_cursor FOR
 SELECT EMPLOYEE, EMPLOYER,
 STARTDATE, ENDDATE,
 REGIONCODE, EID, VALUE, CURRENCY
 FROM EMPLOYMENT;
      RETURN  st_cursor;
 END;

To use this query in Hibernate you need to map it via a named query.

<sql-query name="selectAllEmployees_SP" callable="true">
    <return alias="emp" class="Employment">
        <return-property name="employee" column="EMPLOYEE"/>
        <return-property name="employer" column="EMPLOYER"/>
        <return-property name="startDate" column="STARTDATE"/>
        <return-property name="endDate" column="ENDDATE"/>
        <return-property name="regionCode" column="REGIONCODE"/>
        <return-property name="id" column="EID"/>
        <return-property name="salary">
            <return-column name="VALUE"/>
            <return-column name="CURRENCY"/>
        </return-property>
    </return>
    { ? = call selectAllEmployments() }
</sql-query>

Stored procedures currently only return scalars and entities. <return-join> and <load-collection> are not supported.

Hibernate3 can use custom SQL statements for create, update, and delete operations. The class and collection persisters in Hibernate already contain a set of configuration time generated strings (insertsql, deletesql, updatesql etc.). The mapping tags <sql-insert>, <sql-delete>, and <sql-update> override these strings:

<class name="Person">
    <id name="id">
        <generator class="increment"/>
    </id>
    <property name="name" not-null="true"/>
    <sql-insert>INSERT INTO PERSON (NAME, ID) VALUES ( UPPER(?), ? )</sql-insert>
    <sql-update>UPDATE PERSON SET NAME=UPPER(?) WHERE ID=?</sql-update>
    <sql-delete>DELETE FROM PERSON WHERE ID=?</sql-delete>
</class>

The SQL is directly executed in your database, so you can use any dialect you like. This will reduce the portability of your mapping if you use database specific SQL.

Stored procedures are supported if the callable attribute is set:

<class name="Person">
    <id name="id">
        <generator class="increment"/>
    </id>
    <property name="name" not-null="true"/>
    <sql-insert callable="true">{call createPerson (?, ?)}</sql-insert>
    <sql-delete callable="true">{? = call deletePerson (?)}</sql-delete>
    <sql-update callable="true">{? = call updatePerson (?, ?)}</sql-update>
</class>

The order of the positional parameters is vital, as they must be in the same sequence as Hibernate expects them.

You can view the expected order by enabling debug logging for the org.hibernate.persister.entity level. With this level enabled, Hibernate will print out the static SQL that is used to create, update, delete etc. entities. To view the expected sequence, do not include your custom SQL in the mapping files, as this will override the Hibernate generated static SQL.

The stored procedures are in most cases required to return the number of rows inserted, updated and deleted, as Hibernate has some runtime checks for the success of the statement. Hibernate always registers the first statement parameter as a numeric output parameter for the CUD operations:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION updatePerson (uid IN NUMBER, uname IN VARCHAR2)
    RETURN NUMBER IS
BEGIN

    update PERSON
    set
        NAME = uname,
    where
        ID = uid;

    return SQL%ROWCOUNT;

END updatePerson;

You can also declare your own SQL (or HQL) queries for entity loading:

<sql-query name="person">
    <return alias="pers" class="Person" lock-mode="upgrade"/>
    SELECT NAME AS {pers.name}, ID AS {pers.id}
    FROM PERSON
    WHERE ID=?
    FOR UPDATE
</sql-query>

This is just a named query declaration, as discussed earlier. You can reference this named query in a class mapping:

<class name="Person">
    <id name="id">
        <generator class="increment"/>
    </id>
    <property name="name" not-null="true"/>
    <loader query-ref="person"/>
</class>

This even works with stored procedures.

You can even define a query for collection loading:

<set name="employments" inverse="true">
    <key/>
    <one-to-many class="Employment"/>
    <loader query-ref="employments"/>
</set>
<sql-query name="employments">
    <load-collection alias="emp" role="Person.employments"/>
    SELECT {emp.*}
    FROM EMPLOYMENT emp
    WHERE EMPLOYER = :id
    ORDER BY STARTDATE ASC, EMPLOYEE ASC
</sql-query>

You can also define an entity loader that loads a collection by join fetching:

<sql-query name="person">
    <return alias="pers" class="Person"/>
    <return-join alias="emp" property="pers.employments"/>
    SELECT NAME AS {pers.*}, {emp.*}
    FROM PERSON pers
    LEFT OUTER JOIN EMPLOYMENT emp
        ON pers.ID = emp.PERSON_ID
    WHERE ID=?
</sql-query>