HCQL (Hibernate Criteria Query Language)
The Hibernate Criteria Query Language (HCQL) is used to fetch the records based on the
specific criteria. The Criteria interface provides methods to apply criteria such as retreiving
all the records of table whose salary is greater than 50000 etc.
Advantage of HCQL
The HCQL provides methods to add criteria, so it is easy for the java programmer to add
criteria. The java programmer is able to add many criteria on a query.
Criteria Interface
The Criteria interface provides many methods to specify criteria. The object of Criteria can
be obtained by calling the createCriteria() method of Session interface.
Syntax of createCriteria() method of Session interface
1. public Criteria createCriteria(Class c)
The commonly used methods of Criteria interface are as follows:
1. public Criteria add(Criterion c) is used to add restrictions.
2. public Criteria addOrder(Order o) specifies ordering.
3. public Criteria setFirstResult(int firstResult) specifies the first number of record
to be retreived.
4. public Criteria setMaxResult(int totalResult) specifies the total number of
records to be retreived.
5. public List list() returns list containing object.
6. public Criteria setProjection(Projection projection) specifies the projection.
Restrictions class
Restrictions class provides methods that can be used as Criterion. The commonly used
methods of Restrictions class are as follows:
1. public static SimpleExpression lt(String propertyName,Object value) sets
the less than constraint to the given property.
2. public static SimpleExpression le(String propertyName,Object value) sets
the less than or equal constraint to the given property.
3. public static SimpleExpression gt(String propertyName,Object value) sets
the greater than constraint to the given property.
4. public static SimpleExpression ge(String propertyName,Object value) sets
the greater than or equal than constraint to the given property.
5. public static SimpleExpression ne(String propertyName,Object value) sets
the not equal constraint to the given property.
6. public static SimpleExpression eq(String propertyName,Object value) sets
the equal constraint to the given property.
7. public static Criterion between(String propertyName, Object low, Object
high) sets the between constraint.
8. public static SimpleExpression like(String propertyName, Object value) sets
the like constraint to the given property.
Order class
The Order class represents an order. The commonly used methods of Restrictions class are
as follows:
1. public static Order asc(String propertyName) applies the ascending order on
the basis of given property.
2. public static Order desc(String propertyName) applies the descending order on
the basis of given property.
Example of HCQL to get all the records
1. Crietria c=session.createCriteria(Emp.class); //passing Class class argument
2. List list=c.list();
Example of HCQL to get the 10th to 20th record
1. Crietria c=session.createCriteria(Emp.class);
2. c.setFirstResult(10);
3. c.setMaxResult(20);
4. List list=c.list();
Example of HCQL to get the records whose salary is greater
than 10000
1. Crietria c=session.createCriteria(Emp.class);
2. c.add(Restrictions.gt("salary",10000));//salary is the propertyname
3. List list=c.list();
Example of HCQL to get the records in ascending order on the
basis of salary
1. Crietria c=session.createCriteria(Emp.class);
2. c.addOrder(Order.asc("salary"));
3. List list=c.list();
HCQL with Projection
We can fetch data of a particular column by projection such as name etc. Let's see the
simple example of projection that prints data of NAME column of the table only.
1. Criteria c=session.createCriteria(Emp.class);
2. c.setProjection(Projections.property("name"));
3. List list=c.list();
Example:
package com.klef;
import java.util.List;
import org.hibernate.Criteria;
import org.hibernate.Session;
import org.hibernate.SessionFactory;
import org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration;
import org.hibernate.criterion.Restrictions;
public class HcqlDemo {
public static void main(String args[])
{
Configuration cfg = new Configuration();
cfg.configure("hibernate.cfg.xml");
SessionFactory sf = cfg.buildSessionFactory();
Session s = sf.openSession();
Criteria c = s.createCriteria(StudentPojo.class);
c.add(Restrictions.gt("id",20));
List<StudentPojo> l=c.list();
System.out.println("List total size..._"+l.size());
for(StudentPojo p:l)
{
System.out.println(p.getSid());
System.out.println(p.getSname());
System.out.println("...............");
}
s.close();
sf.close();
}
