We Keep Coding

EntityManager.createNativeQuery returning list of objects instead of list of BigDecimal when using Pagination

I am trying to use Pagination with EntityManager.createNativeQuery(). Below is the skeleton code that I am using:
var query = em.createNativeQuery("select distinct id from ... group by ... having ...");
List<BigDecimal> results = query
.setMaxResults(pageSize)
.setFirstResult(pageNumber * pageSize)
.getResultList();
When pageNumber is 0 (first page), I get the expected List of BigDecimals:
But as soon as pageNumber > 0 (example, second page), I get a List of Objects, and each object in this list seems to contain two BigDecimals, the first of which contains the value from the db, and the second BigDecimal seems to be the position of this row.
and obviously I get this exception
java.lang.ClassCastException: class [Ljava.lang.Object; cannot be cast to class java.math.BigDecimal
Can someone please explain this discrepancy, and how this can be fixed to always return a List of BigDecimals? Thank you.
Update-1 : I have created a sample project to reproduce this issue. I was able to reproduce this issue only with an Oracle database. With H2 database, it worked fine, and I consistently got a list of BigDecimals irrelevant of the page number.
Update-2 : I have also created a sample project with H2 where it works without this issue.

The problem that you are running into is that your OracleDialect adds a column to its selected ResultSet. It wraps the query that you are running as discussed in SternK's answer.
If you were using the Hibernate SessionFactory and the Session interfaces, then the function that you would be looking for would be the "addScalar" method. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an implementation in pure JPA (see the question asked here: Does JPA have an equivalent to Hibernate SQLQuery.addScalar()?).
I would expect your current implementation to work just fine in DB2, H2, HSQL, Postgres, MySQL (and a few other DB engines). However, in Oracle, it adds a row-number column to the ResultSet which means that Hibernate gets 2 columns from the ResultSet. Hibernate does not implement any query parsing in this case, which means that it simply parses the ResultSet into your List. Since it gets 2 values, it converts them into an Object[] rather than a BigDecimal.
As a caveat, relying on the JDBC driver to provide the expected-data-type is a bit dangerous, since Hibernate will ask the JDBC driver which data-type it suggests. In this case, it suggests a BigDecimal, but under certain conditions and certain implementations would be allowed to return a Double or some other type.
You have a couple options then.
You can modify your oracle-dialect (as SternK) suggests. This will take advantage of an alternate oracle-paging implementation.
If you are not opposed to having hibnerate-specific aspects in your JPA implementation, then you can take advantage of additional hibernate functions that are not offered in the JPA standard. (See the following code...)
List<BigDecimal> results = entitymanager.createNativeQuery("select distinct id from ... group by ... having ...")
.unwrap(org.hibernate.query.NativeQuery.class)
.addScalar("id", BigDecimalType.INSTANCE)
.getResultList();
System.out.println(results);
This does have the advantage of explicitly telling hibnerate, that you are only interested in the "id" column of your ResultSet, and that hibernate needs to explicitly convert to the returned object to a BigDecimal, should the JDBC-driver decide that a different type would be more appropriate as a default.

The root cause of your problem in the way how the pagination implemented in your hibernate oracle dialect.
There are two cases:
When we have setFirstResult(0) the following sql will be generated:
-- setMaxResults(5).setFirstResult(0)
select * from (
select test_id from TST_MY_TEST -- this is your initial query
)
where rownum <= 5;
As you can see, this query returns exactly the same columns list as your initial query, and therefore you do not have problem with this case.
When we set setFirstResult in not 0 value the following sql will be generated:
-- setMaxResults(5).setFirstResult(2)
select * from (
select row_.*, rownum rownum_
from (
select test_id from TST_MY_TEST -- this is your initial query
) row_
where rownum <= 5
)
where rownum_ > 2
As you can see, this query returns the columns list with additional rownum_ column, and therefore you do have the problem with casting this result set to the BigDecimal.
Solution
If you use Oracle 12c R1 (12.1) or higher you can override this behavior in your dialect using new row limiting clause in this way:
import org.hibernate.dialect.Oracle12cDialect;
import org.hibernate.dialect.pagination.AbstractLimitHandler;
import org.hibernate.dialect.pagination.LimitHandler;
import org.hibernate.dialect.pagination.LimitHelper;
import org.hibernate.engine.spi.RowSelection;
public class MyOracleDialect extends Oracle12cDialect
{
private static final AbstractLimitHandler LIMIT_HANDLER = new AbstractLimitHandler() {
#Override
public String processSql(String sql, RowSelection selection) {
final boolean hasOffset = LimitHelper.hasFirstRow(selection);
final StringBuilder pagingSelect = new StringBuilder(sql.length() + 50);
pagingSelect.append(sql);
/*
see the documentation https://docs.oracle.com/database/121/SQLRF/statements_10002.htm#BABHFGAA
(Restrictions on the row_limiting_clause)
You cannot specify this clause with the for_update_clause.
*/
if (hasOffset) {
pagingSelect.append(" OFFSET ? ROWS");
}
pagingSelect.append(" FETCH NEXT ? ROWS ONLY");
return pagingSelect.toString();
}
#Override
public boolean supportsLimit() {
return true;
}
};
public MyOracleDialect()
{
}
#Override
public LimitHandler getLimitHandler() {
return LIMIT_HANDLER;
}
}
and then use it.
<property name="hibernate.dialect">com.me.MyOracleDialect</property>
For my test data set for the following query:
NativeQuery query = session.createNativeQuery(
"select test_id from TST_MY_TEST"
).setMaxResults(5).setFirstResult(2);
List<BigDecimal> results = query.getResultList();
I got:
Hibernate:
/* dynamic native SQL query */
select test_id from TST_MY_TEST
OFFSET ? ROWS FETCH NEXT ? ROWS ONLY
val = 3
val = 4
val = 5
val = 6
val = 7
P.S. See also HHH-12087
P.P.S I simplified my implementation of the AbstractLimitHandler by removing checking presents FOR UPDATE clause. I think we will not have nothing good in this case and with this checking.
For example for the following case:
NativeQuery query = session.createNativeQuery(
"select test_id from TST_MY_TEST FOR UPDATE OF test_id"
).setMaxResults(5).setFirstResult(2);
hibernate (with Oracle12cDialect) will generate the following sql:
/* dynamic native SQL query */
select * from (
select
row_.*,
rownum rownum_
from (
select test_id from TST_MY_TEST -- initial sql without FOR UPDATE clause
) row_
where rownum <= 5
)
where rownum_ > 2
FOR UPDATE OF test_id -- moved for_update_clause
As you can see, hibernate tries to fix query by moving FOR UPDATE to the end of the query. But anyway, we will get:
ORA-02014: cannot select FOR UPDATE from view with DISTINCT, GROUP BY, etc.

I've simulated your consult and everything works fine. I've used DataJpaTest to instance entityManager for me, h2 memory database and JUnit 5 to run the test. See below:
#Test
public void shouldGetListOfSalaryPaginated() {
// given
Person alex = new Person("alex");
alex.setSalary(BigDecimal.valueOf(3305.33));
Person john = new Person("john");
john.setSalary(BigDecimal.valueOf(33054.10));
Person ana = new Person("ana");
ana.setSalary(BigDecimal.valueOf(1223));
entityManager.persist(alex);
entityManager.persist(john);
entityManager.persist(ana);
entityManager.flush();
entityManager.clear();
// when
List<BigDecimal> found = entityManager.createNativeQuery("SELECT salary FROM person").setMaxResults(2).setFirstResult(2*1).getResultList();
// then
Assertions.assertEquals(found.size(), 1);
Assertions.assertEquals(found.get(0).longValue(), 1223L);
}
I suggest that you review your native query. It's preferable that you use Criteria API instead and let native queries for extreme cases like complex consults.
Update
After the author posted the project, I could reproduce the problem and it was related to the oracle dialect. For unknown reason the query which is running for the second call is: select * from ( select row_.*, rownum rownum_ from ( SELECT c.SHOP_ID FROM CUSTOMER c ) row_ where rownum <= ?) where rownum_ > ?, and that's why this is generating a bug, because it's querying 2 columns instead of only one. The undesired one is this rownum. For other dialects there is no such problem.
I suggest you try other oracle dialect version and whether none of them work, my final tip is try to do the pagination yourself.

After a lot of trails with different versions of different spring libraries, I was finally able to figure out the issue. In one of my attempts, the issue seems to have disappeared, as soon as I updated the spring-data-commons library from v2.1.5.RELEASE to v2.1.6.RELEASE. I looked up the changelog of this release, and this bug, which is related to this bug in spring-data-commons, is the root cause of this issue. I was able to fix the issue after upgrading the spring-data-commons library.

Hibernate returns list of nulls although executed SQL returns values

I'm using hibernate as an ORMapper. I want to execute an actually rather simple hql query:
SELECT a
FROM Foo a
WHERE a.status = :A0status
ORDER BY a.bookingTypeCode ASC,
a.priority ASC
This hql query is then converted into a sql query which looks something like this:
select a.*
from Foo a
where a.status='A'
order by a.bookingtypecode ASC,
a.priority ASC
When I execute the sql on the oracle database using the Oracle SQL Developer I get 17 rows returned. However, when I execute the hql query (using the list method of a Query I get a list of 17 elements that are all null. Although the number of elements is correct, not a single one of the elements is actually loaded.
This is the way I create and execute my query:
// the hql query is stored in the hqlQuery variable;
// the parameter are stored in a Map<String, Object> called params
Query hQuery = hibSession.createQuery(hqlQuery);
for (Entry<String, Object> param : params.entrySet()) {
String key = param.getKey();
Object value = param.getValue();
hQuery.setParameter(key, value);
}
List<?> result = hQuery.list();
Does anyone know what might be the problem here?
Update 1
I've recently upgrade from hibernate 3.2 to 4.3.5. Before the upgrade everything worked fine. After the upgrade I get this error.

I've set the Log level of hibernate to TRACE and found the problem. It was actually a mapping/logic/database error. The primary key consisted of two columns (according to the entity class) and one of these columns was nullable. However a primary key can never be nullable. Therefore hibernate always returned null.

If you have not set a custom (and buggy) ResultTransformer, my second best guess is that your debugger is lying to you. Does you code actually receives a list of null?
Also make sure to test with the code you are showing is. Too many times, people simplify things and the devil is in the details.

This error is happening to me. MySQL query browser works, but in hibernate of 7 columns and only one column always came with all null fields. I checked all the ids and they were not null. The error was in the construction of SQL Native. I had to change the way of writing it. Ai worked.
SELECT c.idContratoEmprestimo as idContratoEmprestimo,
c.dtOperacao as dataOperacao,
p.cpf as cpf,
p.nome as nome,
(Select count(p2.idParcelaEmprestimo) from EMP_PARCELA p2 where p2.valorPago > 0 and p2.dtPagamento is not null
and p2.idContratoEmprestimo = c.idContratoEmprestimo and p2.mesCompetencia <= '2014-08-01') as parcelasPagas, c.numeroParcelas as numeroParcelas,
pe.valorPago as valorParcela
FROM EMP_CONTRATO c inner join TB_PARTICIPANTE_DADOS_PLANO AS pp on pp.idParticipantePlano = c.idParticipantePlano
inner join TB_PARTICIPANTE as p on p.id = pp.idParticipante
inner join TB_PARTICIPANTE_INSTITUIDOR as pi on pi.PARTICIPANTE_ID = p.id
inner join EMP_PARCELA as pe on pe.idContratoEmprestimo = c.idContratoEmprestimo
where c.dtInicioContrato <= '2014-08-01' and pi.INSTITUIDOR_ID = 1
and c.avaliado is true
and pe.mesCompetencia = '2014-08-01'
and c.deferido is true
and c.dtQuitacao is null
and c.dtExclusao is null
and pe.valorPago is not null
group by c.idContratoEmprestimo
order by p.nome

Hibernate lazy initialized collection with hint for Oracle DB

I have entity with lazy initialized collection:
SomeEntity someEntity = template.findByNamedQuery("queryName", entityId);
if (someEntity != null) {
Hibernate.initialize(someEntity.getChildCollection());
}
Hibernate generate SQL:
SELECT
t.COL1 AS COL1_,
t.COL2 AS COL2_,
...
t.COLN AS COLN_
FROM SCHEMA.TABLE t
WHERE t.COLX = :1
ORDER BY t.COL1 ASC;
There is index IDX_COLX on column COLX.
But for some unknown reason sometimes Oracle doesnt use this index and use full scan on table. I dont control DB, but I was told (by db admin) that solution to this is to pass hints for Oracle.
Something like this:
SELECT /*+ index(t IDX_COLX) */
t.COL1 AS COL1_,
t.COL2 AS COL2_,
...
t.COLN AS COLN_
FROM SCHEMA.TABLE t
WHERE t.COLX = :1
ORDER BY t.COL1 ASC;
Is there any simple way to force hibernate do attach this additional information to generated SQL query?
I dont want to rewrite whole application because of some Oracle bug or misconfiguration.
I use hibernate 3.3.2.
EDIT:
I tried solution given by StuPointerException and generated SQL looks like:
/*+ index(t IDX_COLX) */
SELECT
t.COL1 AS COL1_,
t.COL2 AS COL2_,
...
t.COLN AS COLN_
FROM SCHEMA.TABLE t
WHERE t.COLX = :1
ORDER BY t.COL1 ASC;
Tested that in Oracle SQL Developer and it looks like Oracle doesnt recognise this hint if placed before SELECT statement.

You can achieve this by enabling the property use_sql_comments on your HibernateSessionFactory:
<property name="use_sql_comments">true</property>
You will then be able to do this:
String hql = "from SomeEntity e where e.COLX = :colx";
List result = session.createQuery(hql)
.setString("colx", "xyz")
.setComment("+ index(t IDX_COLX)")
.list();
It does mean that you have to take more control over the relationship in your code though, which is a bit of a pain.
Good luck!

How to use Hibernate to query a MySQL database with indexes

I have an application developed based on MySQL that is connected through Hibernate. I used DAO utility code to query the database. Now I need optimize my database query by indexes. My question is, how can I query data through Hibernate DAO utility code and make sure indexes are used in MySQL database when queries are executed. Any hints or pointers to existing examples are appreciated!
Update: Just want to make the question more understandable a little bit. Following is the code I used to query the MySQL database through Hibernated DAO utility codes. I'm not directly using HQL here. Any suggestions for a best solution? If needed, I will rewrite the database query code and use HQL directly instead.
public static List<Measurements> getMeasurementsList(String physicalId, String startdate, String enddate) {
List<Measurements> listOfMeasurements = new ArrayList<Measurements>();
Timestamp queryStartDate = toTimestamp(startdate);
Timestamp queryEndDate = toTimestamp(enddate);
MeasurementsDAO measurementsDAO = new MeasurementsDAO();
PhysicalLocationDAO physicalLocationDAO = new PhysicalLocationDAO();
short id = Short.parseShort(physicalId);
List physicalLocationList = physicalLocationDAO.findByProperty("physicalId", id);
Iterator ite = physicalLocationList.iterator();
while(ite.hasNext()) {
PhysicalLocation physicalLocation = (PhysicalLocation)ite.next();
List measurementsList = measurementsDAO.findByProperty("physicalLocation", physicalLocation);
Iterator jte = measurementsList.iterator();
while(jte.hasNext()){
Measurements measurements = (Measurements)jte.next();
if(measurements.getMeasTstime().after(queryStartDate)
&& measurements.getMeasTstime().before(queryEndDate)) {
listOfMeasurements.add(measurements);
}
}
}
return listOfMeasurements;
}

Just like with SQL, you don't need to do anything special. Just execute your queries as usual, and the database will use the indices you've created to optimize them, if possible.
For example, let's say you have a HQL query that searches all the products that have a given name:
select p from Product where p.name = :name
This query will be translated by Hibernate to SQL:
select p.id, p.name, p.price, p.code from product p where p.name = ?
If you don't have any index set on product.name, the database will have to scan the whole table of products to find those that have the given name.
If you have an index set on product.name, the database will determine that, given the query, it's useful to use this index, and will thus know which rows have the given name thanks to the index. It willl thus be able to only read a small subset of the rows to return the queries data.
This is all transparent to you. You just need to know which queries are slow and frequent enough to justify the creation of an index to speed them up.

How to convert nested SQL to HQL

I am new to the Hibernate and HQL. I want to write an update query in HQL, whose SQL equivalent is as follows:
update patient set
`last_name` = "new_last",
`first_name` = "new_first"
where id = (select doctor_id from doctor
where clinic_id = 22 and city = 'abc_city');
doctor_id is PK for doctor and is FK and PK in patient. There is one-to-one mapping.
The corresponding Java classes are Patient (with fields lastName, firstName, doctorId) and Doctor (with fields doctorId).
Can anyone please tell what will be the HQL equivalent of the above SQL query?
Thanks a lot.

String update = "update Patient p set p.last_name = :new_last, p.first_name = :new_first where p.id = some (select doctor.id from Doctor doctor where doctor.clinic_id = 22 and city = 'abc_city')";
You can work out how to phrase hql queries if you check the specification. You can find a section about subqueries there.

I don't think you need HQL (I know, you ask that explicitly, but since you say you're new to Hibernate, let me offer a Hibernate-style alternative). I am not a favor of HQL, because you are still dealing with strings, which can become hard to maintain, just like SQL, and you loose type safety.
Instead, use Hibernate criteria queries and methods to query your data. Depending on your class mapping, you could do something like this:
List patients = session.CreateCriteria(typeof(Patient.class))
.createAlias("doctor", "dr")
.add(Restrictions.Eq("dr.clinic_id", 22))
.add(Restrictions.Eq("dr.city", "abc_city"))
.list();
// go through the patients and set the properties something like this:
for(Patient p : patients)
{
p.lastName = "new lastname";
p.firstName = "new firstname";
}
Some people argue that using CreateCriteria is difficult. It takes a little getting used to, true, but it has the advantage of type safety and complexities can easily be hidden behind generic classes. Google for "Hibernate java GetByProperty" and you see what I mean.

update Patient set last_name = :new_last , first_name = :new_first where patient.id = some(select doctor_id from Doctor as doctor where clinic_id = 22 and city = abc_city)

There is a significant difference between executing update with select and actually fetching the records to the client, updating them and posting them back:
UPDATE x SET a=:a WHERE b in (SELECT ...)
works in the database, no data is transferred to the client.
list=CreateCriteria().add(Restriction).list();
brings all the records to be updated to the client, updates them, then posts them back to the database, probably with one UPDATE per record.
Using UPDATE is much, much faster than using criteria (think thousands of times).

Since the question title can be interpreted generally as "How to use nested selects in hibernate", and the HQL syntax restricts nested selects only to be in the select- and the where-clause, I would like to add here the possibility to use native SQL as well. In Oracle - for instance - you may also use a nested select in the from-clause.
Following query with two nested inner selects cannot be expressed by HQL:
select ext, count(ext)
from (
select substr(s, nullif( instr(s,'.', -1) +1, 1) ) as ext
from (
select b.FILE_NAME as s from ATTACHMENT_B b
union select att.FILE_NAME as s from ATTACHEMENT_FOR_MAIL att
)
)
GROUP BY ext
order by ext;
(which counts, BTW, the occurences of each distinct file name extension in two different tables).
You can use such an sql string as native sql like this:
#Autowired
private SessionFactory sessionFactory;
String sql = ...
SQLQuery qry = sessionFactory.getCurrentSession().createSQLQuery(sql);
// provide an appropriate ResultTransformer
return qry.list();