Hey guys in this post, we will discuss the Data JPA finder method
Containing
examples
Table of Contents
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 apply
Containing
on the field names to filter the records that match the given text.
public class Employee {
private String name;
private String location;
//setters and getters
To query the database that the employee name contains the given text –
findByNameContaining(String name)
To query the database that the employee location contains the given text –
findByLocationContaining(String location)
Behind the scenes, Data JPA will create a SQL query like this –
SELECT * FROM employee WHERE name LIKE '%jhon%';
SELECT * FROM employee WHERE location LIKE '%india%';
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 –
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
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
@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 findByNameContaining()and findByBrandContaining() 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.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.RequestParam;
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/namecontains")
public ResponseEntity<List<Laptop>> getLaptopsByNameContains(@RequestParam String name) {
return new ResponseEntity<List<Laptop>>(lRepo.findByNameContaining(name), HttpStatus.OK);
@GetMapping("/laptops/brandcontains")
public ResponseEntity<List<Laptop>> getLaptopsByBrandContains(@RequestParam String brand) {
return new ResponseEntity<List<Laptop>>(lRepo.findByBrandContaining(brand), HttpStatus.OK);
We have auto wired the LaptopRepository using @Autowired annotation. We have created 2 handler methods, getLaptopsByNameContaining()and getLaptopsByBrandContaining() which will call the repository methods findByNameContaining()and findByBrandContaining().
Run the app
Run the application using the below maven command –
Hi! Can you help me with this case: imagine that laptop has another attribute that is a list of strings: “colors_available”
What can i do to get all computers with the color “silver”?
