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Hey guys in this post, we will discuss the Data JPA finder method In examples

Overview

JPA finder methods are the most powerful methods, we can create finder methods to select the records from the database without writing SQL queries. Behind the scenes, Data JPA will create SQL queries based on the finder method and execute the query for us.

To create finder methods in Data JPA, we need to follow a certain naming convention. To create finder methods for the entity class field name, we need to create a method starting with findBy followed by field name. We can also write in queries by using In keyword on the field names

public class Employee {
	
	private String name;
	
	private String location;
	
	//setters and getters
}

To query the database that the employee name contains the given text –

findByNameIn(List<String> names)

To query the database that the employee location contains the given text –

findByLocationIn(List<String> locations)

Behind the scenes, Data JPA will create a SQL query like this –

SELECT * FROM employee WHERE name IN ('Shankar', 'Ramesh');
SELECT * FROM employee WHERE location IN ('India', 'Australia');

As you can see, it’s so much easy to select the records with the help of finder methods. That’s the beauty of Data JPA.

Watch the video

Complete example

Let’s create a step-by-step spring boot project and create different finder methods for various fields.

Create database and insert sample data

Open MySQL workbench and execute the following commands

CREATE DATABASE mydb;

USE mydb;

CREATE TABLE tbl_laptops(
    id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
    name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    description VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    brand VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    price DOUBLE(10, 2) NOT NULL
);

INSERT INTO tbl_laptops(name, description, brand, price)
VALUES("Dell Inspiron", "dell company laptop", "Dell", 60000.00);

INSERT INTO tbl_laptops(name, description, brand, price)
VALUES("Dell XPS", "dell company laptop", "Dell", 70000.00);

INSERT INTO tbl_laptops(name, description, brand, price)
VALUES("Macbook Air", "apple company laptop", "Apple", 85000.00);

INSERT INTO tbl_laptops(name, description, brand, price)
VALUES("Macbook Pro", "apple company laptop", "Apple", 160000.00);

INSERT INTO tbl_laptops(name, description, brand, price)
VALUES("HP", "hp company laptop", "HP", 50000.00);

INSERT INTO tbl_laptops(name, description, brand, price)
VALUES("Lenovo", "lenovo company laptop", "Lenovo", 50000.00);

SELECT * FROM tbl_laptops;

We have created a table tbl_laptops that contains 5 fields. We have inserted the sample data as well.

Create spring boot project

There are many different ways to create a spring boot application, you can follow the below articles to create one –

>> Create spring boot application using Spring initializer
>> Create spring boot application in Spring tool suite [STS]
>> Create spring boot application in IntelliJ IDEA

Add maven dependencies

Open pom.xml and add the following dependencies –

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
	<parent>
		<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
		<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
		<version>2.4.4</version>
		<relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
	</parent>
	<groupId>in.bushansirgur</groupId>
	<artifactId>findbyfieldname</artifactId>
	<version>v1</version>
	<name>findbyfieldname</name>
	<description>Spring boot data jpa find by field name</description>
	<properties>
		<java.version>1.8</java.version>
	</properties>
	<dependencies>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
		</dependency>

		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
			<scope>runtime</scope>
			<optional>true</optional>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>mysql</groupId>
			<artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
			<scope>runtime</scope>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
			<artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
			<optional>true</optional>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
			<scope>test</scope>
		</dependency>
	</dependencies>

	<build>
		<plugins>
			<plugin>
				<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
				<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
				<configuration>
					<excludes>
						<exclude>
							<groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
							<artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
						</exclude>
					</excludes>
				</configuration>
			</plugin>
		</plugins>
	</build>

</project>

spring-boot-starter-web dependency for building web applications using Spring MVC. It uses the tomcat as the default embedded container.




spring-boot-devtools dependency for automatic reloads or live reload of applications. spring-boot-starter-data-jpa dependency is a starter for using Spring Data JPA with Hibernate. lombok dependency is a java library that will reduce the boilerplate code that we usually write inside every entity class like setters, getters, and toString()

Create an entity class

Create Laptop.java inside the in.bushansirgur.springboot.entity package and add the following content

package in.bushansirgur.springboot.entity;

import java.math.BigDecimal;

import javax.persistence.Entity;
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue;
import javax.persistence.GenerationType;
import javax.persistence.Id;
import javax.persistence.Table;

import lombok.Data;

@Entity
@Data
@Table(name="tbl_laptops")
public class Laptop {
	
	@Id
	@GeneratedValue(strategy=GenerationType.IDENTITY)
	private Long id;
	
	private String name;
	
	private String description;
	
	private String brand;
	
	private BigDecimal price;
}

We have added @Data annotation which is a Lombok annotation, that will automatically create setters, getters, toString(), and equals() for us.

@Entity is a mandatory annotation that indicates that this class is a JPA entity and is mapped with a database table.

@Table annotation is an optional annotation that contains the table info like table name.




@Id annotation is a mandatory annotation that marks a field as the primary key

Create a Repository

Create an interface LaptopRepository.java inside the in.bushansirgur.springboot.repos package and add the following content

package in.bushansirgur.springboot.repos;

import java.math.BigDecimal;
import java.util.List;

import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.JpaRepository;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Repository;

import in.bushansirgur.springboot.entity.Laptop;

@Repository
public interface LaptopRepository extends JpaRepository<Laptop, Long> {
	
	List<Laptop> findByNameIn(List<String> names);
	
	List<Laptop> findByPriceIn(List<BigDecimal> prices);
}

@Repository annotates classes at the persistence layer, which will act as a database repository. We have extended this interface with JPARepository interface which will provide built-in methods to interact with the database also we can define finder methods. We have defined 2 finder methods findByNameIn()and findByPriceIn() which will return the List<Laptops>

Create a Rest controller

Create LaptopController.java inside the in.bushansirgur.springboot.controller package and add the following content

package in.bushansirgur.springboot.controller;

import java.math.BigDecimal;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

import in.bushansirgur.springboot.entity.Laptop;
import in.bushansirgur.springboot.repos.LaptopRepository;

@RestController
public class LaptopController {
	
	@Autowired
	LaptopRepository lRepo;
	
	@GetMapping("/laptops/namein")
	public ResponseEntity<List<Laptop>> getLaptopsByNameIn() {
		return new ResponseEntity<List<Laptop>>(lRepo.findByNameIn(Arrays.asList("hp", "lenovo")), HttpStatus.OK);
	}
	
	@GetMapping("/laptops/pricein")
	public ResponseEntity<List<Laptop>> getLaptopsByPriceIn() {
		return new ResponseEntity<List<Laptop>>(
				lRepo.findByPriceIn(Arrays.asList(new BigDecimal(50000.00), new BigDecimal(85000.00))), HttpStatus.OK);
	}
}

We have auto wired the LaptopRepository using @Autowired annotation. We have created 2 handler methods, getLaptopsByNameIn()and getLaptopsByPriceIn()  which will call the repository methods findByNameIn() and findByPriceIn().

Run the app

Run the application using the below maven command –

mvn spring-boot:run

Open the browser and enter the following URL –

• http://localhost:8080/laptops/namein

[
    {
        "id": 5,
        "name": "HP",
        "brand": "HP",
        "description": "hp company laptop",
        "price": 50000.0
    },
    {
        "id": 6,
        "name": "Lenovo",
        "brand": "Lenovo",
        "description": "lenovo company laptop",
        "price": 50000.0
    }
]

• http://localhost:8080/laptops/pricein

[
    {
        "id": 3,
        "name": "Macbook Air",
        "brand": "Apple",
        "description": "apple company laptop",
        "price": 85000.0
    },
    {
        "id": 5,
        "name": "HP",
        "brand": "HP",
        "description": "hp company laptop",
        "price": 50000.0
    },
    {
        "id": 6,
        "name": "Lenovo",
        "brand": "Lenovo",
        "description": "lenovo company laptop",
        "price": 50000.0
    }
]