Enterprise JavaBeans 3.1, 6th Edition

Chapter 13. Queries, the Criteria API, and JPA QL

Querying is a fundamental feature of all relational databases. It allows you to pull complex reports, calculations, and information about intricately related objects from persistence storage. Queries in Java Persistence are done using the JPA QL query language, native Structured Query Language (SQL), and the new Criteria API.

JPA QL is a declarative query language similar to the SQL used in relational databases, but it is tailored to work with Java objects rather than a relational schema. To execute queries, you reference the properties and relationships of your entity beans rather than the underlying tables and columns these objects are mapped to. When a JPA QL query is executed, the entity manager uses the information you provided through the mapping metadata, discussed in the previous two chapters, and automatically translates it to an appropriate native SQL query. This generated native SQL is then executed through a JDBC driver directly on your database. Since JPA QL is a query language that represents Java objects, it is portable across vendor database implementations because the entity manager handles the conversion to raw SQL for you.

The JPA QL language is easy for developers to learn, yet precise enough to be interpreted into native database code. This rich and flexible query language empowers developers while executing in fast native code at runtime. Plus, because JPA QL is object-oriented, queries are usually much more compact ...