The most basic SQL query is to get a list of scalars (values).

sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS").list();
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT ID, NAME, BIRTHDATE FROM CATS").list();

These will both return a List of Object arrays (Object[]) with scalar values for each column in the CATS table. Hibernate will use ResultSetMetadata to deduce the actual order and types of the returned scalar values.

To avoid the overhead of using ResultSetMetadata or simply to be more explicit in what is returned one can use addScalar().

sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS")
 .addScalar("ID", Hibernate.LONG)
 .addScalar("NAME", Hibernate.STRING)
 .addScalar("BIRTHDATE", Hibernate.DATE)

This query specified:

This will still return Object arrays, but now it will not use ResultSetMetdata but will instead explicitly get the ID, NAME and BIRTHDATE column as respectively a Long, String and a Short from the underlying resultset. This also means that only these three columns will be returned, even though the query is using * and could return more than the three listed columns.

It is possible to leave out the type information for all or some of the scalars.

sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS")
 .addScalar("ID", Hibernate.LONG)
 .addScalar("NAME")
 .addScalar("BIRTHDATE")

This is essentially the same query as before, but now ResultSetMetaData is used to decide the type of NAME and BIRTHDATE where as the type of ID is explicitly specified.

How the java.sql.Types returned from ResultSetMetaData is mapped to Hibernate types is controlled by the Dialect. If a specific type is not mapped or does not result in the expected type it is possible to customize it via calls to registerHibernateType in the Dialect.

The above queries were all about returning scalar values, basically returning the "raw" values from the resultset. The following shows how to get entity objects from a native sql query via addEntity().

sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS").addEntity(Cat.class);
sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT ID, NAME, BIRTHDATE FROM CATS").addEntity(Cat.class);

This query specified:

Assuming that Cat is mapped as a class with the columns ID, NAME and BIRTHDATE the above queries will both return a List where each element is a Cat entity.

If the entity is mapped with a many-to-one to another entity it is required to also return this when performing the native query, otherwise a database specific "column not found" error will occur. The additional columns will automatically be returned when using the * notation, but we prefer to be explicit as in the following example for a many-to-one to a Dog:

sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT ID, NAME, BIRTHDATE, DOG_ID FROM CATS").addEntity(Cat.class);

This will allow cat.getDog() to function properly.

It is possible to eagerly join in the Dog to avoid the possible extra roundtrip for initializing the proxy. This is done via the addJoin() method, which allows you to join in an association or collection.

sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT c.ID, NAME, BIRTHDATE, DOG_ID, D_ID, D_NAME FROM CATS c, DOGS d WHERE c.DOG_ID = d.D_ID")
 .addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
 .addJoin("cat.dog");

In this example the returned Cat's will have their dog property fully initialized without any extra roundtrip to the database. Notice that we added a alias name ("cat") to be able to specify the target property path of the join. It is possible to do the same eager joining for collections, e.g. if the Cat had a one-to-many to Dog instead.

sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT ID, NAME, BIRTHDATE, D_ID, D_NAME, CAT_ID FROM CATS c, DOGS d WHERE c.ID = d.CAT_ID")
 .addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
 .addJoin("cat.dogs");

Until now the result set column names are assumed to be the same as the column names specified in the mapping document. This can be problematic for SQL queries which join multiple tables, since the same column names may appear in more than one table.

Column alias injection is needed in the following query (which most likely will fail):

sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT c.*, m.*  FROM CATS c, CATS m WHERE c.MOTHER_ID = c.ID")
 .addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
 .addEntity("mother", Cat.class)

The intention for this query is to return two Cat instances per row, a cat and its mother. This will fail since there is a conflict of names since they are mapped to the same column names and on some databases the returned column aliases will most likely be on the form "c.ID", "c.NAME", etc. which are not equal to the columns specificed in the mappings ("ID" and "NAME").

The following form is not vulnerable to column name duplication:

sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT {cat.*}, {mother.*}  FROM CATS c, CATS m WHERE c.MOTHER_ID = c.ID")
 .addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
 .addEntity("mother", Cat.class)

This query specified:

The {cat.*} and {mother.*} notation used above is a shorthand for "all properties". Alternatively, you may list the columns explicity, but even in this case we let Hibernate inject the SQL column aliases for each property. The placeholder for a column alias is just the property name qualified by the table alias. In the following example, we retrieve Cats and their mothers from a different table (cat_log) to the one declared in the mapping metadata. Notice that we may even use the property aliases in the where clause if we like.

String sql = "SELECT ID as {c.id}, NAME as {c.name}, " + 
         "BIRTHDATE as {c.birthDate}, MOTHER_ID as {c.mother}, {mother.*} " +
         "FROM CAT_LOG c, CAT_LOG m WHERE {c.mother} = c.ID";

List loggedCats = sess.createSQLQuery(sql)
        .addEntity("cat", Cat.class)
        .addEntity("mother", Cat.class).list()

It is possible to apply a ResultTransformer to native sql queries. Allowing it to e.g. return non-managed entities.

sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT NAME, BIRTHDATE FROM CATS")
        .setResultTransformer(Transformers.aliasToBean(CatDTO.class))

This query specified:

The above query will return a list of CatDTO which has been instantiated and injected the values of NAME and BIRTHNAME into its corresponding properties or fields.

Native sql queries which query for entities that is mapped as part of an inheritance must include all properties for the baseclass and all it subclasses.

Native sql queries support positional as well as named parameters:

Query query = sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS WHERE NAME like ?").addEntity(Cat.class);
List pusList = query.setString(0, "Pus%").list();
     
query = sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT * FROM CATS WHERE NAME like :name").addEntity(Cat.class);
List pusList = query.setString("name", "Pus%").list();          

With <return-property> you can explicitly tell Hibernate what column aliases to use, instead of using the {}-syntax to let Hibernate inject its own aliases.

<sql-query name="mySqlQuery">
    <return alias="person" class="eg.Person">
        <return-property name="name" column="myName"/>
        <return-property name="age" column="myAge"/>
        <return-property name="sex" column="mySex"/>
    </return>
    SELECT person.NAME AS myName,
           person.AGE AS myAge,
           person.SEX AS mySex,
    FROM PERSON person WHERE person.NAME LIKE :name
</sql-query>

<return-property> also works with multiple columns. This solves a limitation with the {}-syntax which can not allow fine grained control of multi-column properties.

<sql-query name="organizationCurrentEmployments">
    <return alias="emp" class="Employment">
        <return-property name="salary">
            <return-column name="VALUE"/>
            <return-column name="CURRENCY"/>
        </return-property>
        <return-property name="endDate" column="myEndDate"/>
    </return>
        SELECT EMPLOYEE AS {emp.employee}, EMPLOYER AS {emp.employer},
        STARTDATE AS {emp.startDate}, ENDDATE AS {emp.endDate},
        REGIONCODE as {emp.regionCode}, EID AS {emp.id}, VALUE, CURRENCY
        FROM EMPLOYMENT
        WHERE EMPLOYER = :id AND ENDDATE IS NULL
        ORDER BY STARTDATE ASC
</sql-query>

Notice that in this example we used <return-property> in combination with the {}-syntax for injection. Allowing users to choose how they want to refer column and properties.

If your mapping has a discriminator you must use <return-discriminator> to specify the discriminator column.

Hibernate 3 introduces support for queries via stored procedures and functions. Most of the following documentation is equivalent for both. The stored procedure/function must return a resultset as the first out-parameter to be able to work with Hibernate. An example of such a stored function in Oracle 9 and higher is as follows:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION selectAllEmployments
    RETURN SYS_REFCURSOR
AS
    st_cursor SYS_REFCURSOR;
BEGIN
    OPEN st_cursor FOR
 SELECT EMPLOYEE, EMPLOYER,
 STARTDATE, ENDDATE,
 REGIONCODE, EID, VALUE, CURRENCY
 FROM EMPLOYMENT;
      RETURN  st_cursor;
 END;

To use this query in Hibernate you need to map it via a named query.

<sql-query name="selectAllEmployees_SP" callable="true">
    <return alias="emp" class="Employment">
        <return-property name="employee" column="EMPLOYEE"/>
        <return-property name="employer" column="EMPLOYER"/>
        <return-property name="startDate" column="STARTDATE"/>
        <return-property name="endDate" column="ENDDATE"/>
        <return-property name="regionCode" column="REGIONCODE"/>
        <return-property name="id" column="EID"/>
        <return-property name="salary">
            <return-column name="VALUE"/>
            <return-column name="CURRENCY"/>
        </return-property>
    </return>
    { ? = call selectAllEmployments() }
</sql-query>

Notice stored procedures currently only return scalars and entities. <return-join> and <load-collection> are not supported.