My understanding is, that with Spring data JPA I cannot have a query method to fetch all rows where a column equals a given non-null method parameter and use the same method to fetch all rows where this column is NULL when the method parameter is null.
Is that correct?
So I have to distinguish this in my JAVA code and I must use a separate query method explicitly asking for null values, like in the example below?
// Query methods
List<Something> findByParameter(Parameter parameter);
List<Something> findByParameterIsNull();
...
List<Something> result = new ArrayList<>();
if (parameter == null)
result = findByParameterIsNull();
else
result = findByParameter(parameter);
That's bad, if I have 4 parameters which could be null and would have to code 16 different query methods.
You are right.
A request has been made to support better handling of null parameters.
https://jira.spring.io/browse/DATAJPA-121
In your case, i would advise you to write your repository implementation and to use a custom CriteriaQuery to handle your case.
Also you can use the @Query annotation with the is null syntax :
@Query("[...] where :parameter is null"
public List<Something> getSomethingWithNullParameter();
EDIT
Since Spring data jpa 2.0, spring now supports @Nullable annotation. This can be helpful to handle null parameters passed.
From the documentation :
@Nullable – to be used on a parameter or return value that can be null.
It seems Query by Example might be what you need.
Query by Example is a new feature in Spring Data (since version Hopper, out April 2016), which allows one to create simple dynamic queries with a code like this
Person person = new Person();
person.setFirstname("Dave");
ExampleMatcher matcher = ExampleMatcher.matching()
.withIncludeNullValues();
Example<Person> example = Example.of(person, matcher);
personRepository.count(example);
personRepository.findOne(example);
personRepository.findAll(example);
Methods count/findOne/findAll
that take an instance of org.springframework.data.domain.Example
as a parameter (and some of them also take sorting/pagination parameters) are coming from org.springframework.data.repository.query.QueryByExampleExecutor<T>
interface, which is extended by org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.JpaRepository<T, ID extends Serializable>
interface.
In short, all JpaRepository
instances now have these methods.
i found something...if u put the parameter in the jpa method like this
@Param("value") String value,
then it can be null and in the query you will have this condition:
(table.value = :value OR :value IS NULL)
if the value is null it will automatically return true and if is not null, it will search that value in the table.
Today as of Jun 2018, by looking at https://jira.spring.io/browse/DATAJPA-121, the query will automatically form is null
if your parameter is null.
I did that in my project, it is true:
compile group: 'org.springframework.data', name: 'spring-data-jpa', version: '2.0.7.RELEASE'
--
public interface AccountDao extends CrudRepository<T, ID> {
//this can accept null and it will become isNull
public List<MyAccount> findByEmail(String email);
}
if parameter is null:
select
myaccount0_.id as id1_0_,
myaccount0_.email as email2_0_,
myaccount0_.password as password3_0_,
myaccount0_.user_id as user_id4_0_
from
my_account myaccount0_
where
myaccount0_.email is null
if parameter is not null:
select
myaccount0_.id as id1_0_,
myaccount0_.email as email2_0_,
myaccount0_.password as password3_0_,
myaccount0_.user_id as user_id4_0_
from
my_account myaccount0_
where
myaccount0_.email=?
11:02:41.623 [qtp1507181879-72] TRACE o.h.type.descriptor.sql.BasicBinder - binding parameter [1] as [VARCHAR] - [testing@hotmail.com]
Then it comes to an interesting question, some developers want better control to ignore the parameter in query if it is null, this is still being under investigating in https://jira.spring.io/browse/DATAJPA-209.