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SELECT DISTINCT + ORDER BY in JPA 2 Criteria API

I've a class Lawsuit, that contains a List<Hearing>, each one with a Date attribute.
I need to select all the Lawsuits ordered by the date of their Hearings
I've a CriteriaQuery like
CriteriaBuilder cb = em.getCriteriaBuilder();
CriteriaQuery<Lawsuit> cq = cb.createQuery(Lawsuit.class);
Root<Lawsuit> root = cq.from(Lawsuit.class);
I use distinct to flatten the results:
cq.select(root).distinct(true);
I then join Lawsuit with Hearing
Join<Lawsuit, Hearing> hearing = root.join("hearings", JoinType.INNER);
to create Predicates
predicateList.add(cb.isNotNull(hearing.<Date>get("date")));
and Orders:
orderList.add(cb.asc(hearing.<Date>get("date")));
Everything works fine if I avoid distinct, but if I use it, it complains about not being able to order based on fields that are not in the SELECT:
Caused by: org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: ERROR: for SELECT DISTINCT, ORDER BY expressions must appear in select list
The List<Hearing> is already accessible through the Lawsuit classes returned, so I'm confused: how should I add them to the select list ?

I've discovered the source of the problem somewhere else, and solving it has made unnecessary to do what asked in the question;
as described in other answers, it should be unnecessary to perform the distinct here.
The duplicate rows were originated by erroneous left joins that were performed on collections (attributes of the root object) even if the predicates were not been used:
Join<Lawsuit, Witness> witnesses = root.join("witnesses", JoinType.LEFT);
if (witnessToFilterWith!=null) {
predicateList.add(cb.equal(witnesses.<Long>get("id"),witnessToFilterWith.getId()));
}
The join should obviously be performed as inner and only if needed:
if (witnessToFilterWith!=null) {
Join<Lawsuit, Witness> witnesses = root.join("witnesses", JoinType.INNER);
predicateList.add(cb.equal(witnesses.<Long>get("id"),witnessToFilterWith.getId()));
}
So, if you're here because you're getting the same problem, search the problem in the joins.

You can also de-duplicate via group by based on primary key column of root table:
cq.groupBy(root.get("id")); // Assuming that Lawsuite.id is primary key column

JPA CriteriaQuery with LEAST and GREATEST functions

I am have a problem where i need to join two tables using the LEAST and GREATEST functions, but using JPA CriteriaQuery. Here is the SQL that i am trying to duplicate...
select * from TABLE_A a
inner join TABLE_X x on
(
a.COL_1 = least(x.COL_Y, x.COL_Z)
and
a.COL_2 = greatest(x.COL_Y, x.COL_Z)
);
I have looked at CriteriaBuilder.least(..) and greatest(..), but am having a difficult time trying to understand how to create the Expression<T> to pass to either function.

The simplest way to compare two columns and get the least/greatest value is to use the CASE statement.
In JPQL, the query would look like
select a from EntityA a join a.entityXList x
where a.numValueA=CASE WHEN x.numValueY <= x.numValueZ THEN x.numValueY ELSE x.numValueZ END
and a.numValueB=CASE WHEN x.numValueY >= x.numValueZ THEN x.numValueY ELSE x.numValueZ END
You can code the equivalent using CriteriaBuilder.selectCase() but I've never been a big fan of CriteriaBuilder. If requirements forces you to use CriteriaBuilder then please let me know and I can try to code the equivalent.
CriteriaBuilder least/greatest is meant to get the min/max value of all the entries in one column. Let's say you want to get the Entity that had the alphabetically greatest String name. The code would look like
CriteriaBuilder cb = entityManager.getCriteriaBuilder();
CriteriaQuery query = cb.createQuery(EntityX.class);
Root<EntityX> root = query.from(EntityX.class);
Subquery<String> maxSubQuery = query.subquery(String.class);
Root<EntityX> fromEntityX = maxSubQuery.from(EntityX.class);
maxSubQuery.select(cb.greatest(fromEntityX.get(EntityX_.nameX)));
query.where(cb.equal(root.get(EntityX_.nameX), maxSubQuery));
I created a sample Spring Data JPA app that demonstrates these JPA examples at
https://github.com/juttayaya/stackoverflow/tree/master/JpaQueryTest

It turns out that CriteriaBuilder does support calling LEAST and GREATEST as non-aggregate functions, and can be accessed by using the CriteriaBuilder.function(..), as shown here:
Predicate greatestPred = cb.equal(pathA.get(TableA_.col2),
cb.function("greatest", String.class,
pathX.get(TableX_.colY), pathX.get(TableX_.colZ)));

How to return hibernate collection entities without returning root entity

I would like to get elements of a collection (Set<SheetConfig>) for a set of objects (WorkbookConfig) from Hibernate without getting the primary objects(WorkbookConfig).
The underlying tables look like this:
workbook_config -> workbook_config_sheet_join <- sheet_config
If I just run it in my SQL utility, a successful SQL statement looks like this:
SELECT DISTINCT sheet_config_id FROM sheet_config AS sc
LEFT JOIN workbook_config_sheet_join AS wcsj
ON sc.sheet_config_id = wcsj.sheet_config_id
LEFT JOIN workbook_config AS wc
ON wc.workbook_config_id = wcsj.workbook_config_id
WHERE wc.group_id ="1"
ORDER BY sheet_name;
I would like to do this properly without using HQL.
My UNSUCCESSFUL attempt has resulted in this:
#SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public List<SheetConfig> findAllForUser() {
List<SheetConfig> sheetConfigs = null;
Session session = getSession();
Criteria crit = session.createCriteria(WorkbookConfig.class)
.add(Restrictions.in(GROUP, getGroupsForUser()))
.setFetchMode(SHEET_CONFIGS, FetchMode.JOIN);
sheetConfigs = (List<SheetConfig>) crit.list();
return sheetConfigs;
}
This is still giving me WorkbookConfigs, but what I would like to do in a single pass is get SheetConfigs. I have spent the day on the Internet trying to find a coherent explanation of the Hibernate API, and I haven't been able to find what I would think is a solution to a fairly common requirement. I can always back out and just do most of the work in Java, but it seems like I should be able to do this with the Hibernate API. I appreciate any help, and also, if you can recommend a reference that explains not simply querying collections, but returning them, I would be grateful.

Did you look into the setProjection method on Criteria?
Using the setProjection method lets you select properties or objects from the executed query.
Hibernate Criteria documentation

JPA Criteria API using ISNULL in a order by statement

I use MySQL 5.5 with Hibernate 3.6 and JPA 2.0. I have a User table with a firstName which could also be null or an empty string. I want to have those empty firstName results last in my search results. For that I wrote the following SQL query which works just fine:
SELECT * FROM User ORDER BY ISNULL(firstName), firstName = "", firstName ASC LIMIT 100
Now want to translate this to JPA using the criteria API and I am not quite so sure about the order by. Here is what I have:
criteriaQuery = criteriaQuery.orderBy(cb.asc(cb.isNull(users.get(User_.firstName))), cb.asc(cb.equal(users.get(User_.firstName), "")), cb.asc(users.get(User_.firstName)));
However, the code snippet above does not work, because the CriteriaBuilder.isNull() method is traslated to IS NULL and not to the ISNULL() function of MySQL. I get the following exception:
org.hibernate.hql.ast.QuerySyntaxException: unexpected AST node: is null
Any ideas on how to check for null in the Order by statement with JPA 2.0

That is not possible. In JPA you can ORDER BY fields only that you select (that are in the SELECT part of your query). The problem is that there is no IS_NULL function, that can be used in the SELECT part.

I got the exact same problem as you do, finally I solve it using this way, maybe you can try:
CriteriaQuery<> query;
query.orderBy(cb.desc(cb.selectCase().
when(cb.isNull("field name"),0).otherwise(1)),
cb.asc("field name");

Need help creating JPA criteria query

I'm building my first Java EE web application using Glassfish and JSF. I'm fairly new to the criteria query and I have a query I need to perform but the javaee6 tutorial seems a little thin on examples. Anyway, I'm having a hard time creating the query.
Goal: I want to pull the company with the most documents stored.
Companies have a OneToMany relationship with Documents.
Documents has a ManyToOne relationship with several tables, the "usertype" column distinguishes them.
MySQL query:
SELECT USERID, COUNT(USERID) AS CNT
FROM DOCUMENTS
WHERE USERTYPE="COMPANY"
GROUP BY USERID
ORDER BY CNT DESC
Thanks
--update--
Based on user feedback, here is what I have so far:
CriteriaBuilder cb = em.getCriteriaBuilder();
CriteriaQuery<Documents> cqry = cb.createQuery(Documents.class);
//Intersting Stuff
Root<Documents> root = cqry.from(Documents.class);
Expression userid = root.get("userID");
Expression usertype = root.get("userType");
Expression count = cb.count(userid);
cqry.multiselect(userid, count);
Predicate userType = cb.equal(usertype, "COMPANY");
cqry.where(userType);
cqry.groupBy(userid);
cqry.orderBy(cb.desc(count));
//more boilerplate
Query qry = em.createQuery(cqry);
List<Documents> results = qry.getResultList();
The error I get is:
Exception Description: Partial object queries are not allowed to maintain the cache or be edited. You must use dontMaintainCache().
Typical error, means nothing to me!

Your query doesn't return a complete entity object as you're only selecting two fields of the given table (this is why you're getting an error that says yadayadapartialyadayada).
Your solution is almost right, here's what you need to change to make it work—making it partial.
Instead of a plain CriteriaQuery<...> you have to create a tuple CriteriaQuery<..> by calling CriteriaBuilder.createTupleQuery(). (Basically, you can call CriteriaBuilder.createQuery(...) and pass Tuple.class to it as an argument. Tuple is a sort of wildcard entity class.)
CriteriaBuilder cb = em.getCriteriaBuilder();
CriteriaQuery<Tuple> cq= cb.createTupleQuery();
Root<Documents> root = cq.from(Documents.class);
Expression<Integer> userId = root.get("USERID");
Expression<String> userType = root.get("USERTYPE");
Expression<Long> count = cb.count(userId);
cq.multiselect(userId.alias("USERID"), count.alias("CNT"));
cq.where(cb.equal(userType, "COMPANY");
cq.groupBy(userId);
cq.orderBy(cb.desc(count));
TypedQuery<Tuple> tq = em.createQuery(cq);
for (Tuple t : tq.getResultsList()) {
System.out.println(t.get("USERID"));
System.out.println(t.get("CNT"));
}
(Accessing fields of a Tuple gave me an error if I didn't use aliases for them (in multiselect(...)). This is why I've used aliases, but this can be tackled more cleanly by using JPA 2's Metamodel API, which is described in the specification quite thoroughly. )
The documentation for CriteriaQuery.multiselect(...) describes the behaviour of queries using Tuple objects more deeply.

If you are using Hibernate, this should work:
ProjectionList pl = Projections.projectionList()
.add(Projections.groupProperty("userid"))
.add(Projections.property("userid"))
.add(Projections.count("userid"));
Criteria criteria = session.createCriteria(Document.class)
.add(Restrictions.eq("usertype",usertype))
.setProjection(pl)
.addOrder(Order.desc("cnt"));
Hope it helps!

Take a look into this easy tutorial. It uses JPA2 and Criteria
http://www.jumpingbean.co.za/blogs/jpa2-criteria-api
Regards!

You need to add a constructor to Documents with only userid and count because you will need it on:
cqry.multiselect(userid, count);