java - How to properly express JPQL "join fetch" with "where" clause as JPA 2 CriteriaQuery?

Question

Consider the following JPQL query:

SELECT foo FROM Foo foo
INNER JOIN FETCH foo.bar bar
WHERE bar.baz = :baz

I'm trying to translate this into a Criteria query. This is as far as I have gotten:

CriteriaBuilder cb = em.getCriteriaBuilder();
CriteriaQuery<Foo> cq = cb.createQuery(Foo.class);
Root<Foo> r = cq.from(Foo.class);
Fetch<Foo, Bar> fetch = r.fetch(Foo_.bar, JoinType.INNER);
Join<Foo, Bar> join = r.join(Foo_.bar, JoinType.INNER);
cq.where(cb.equal(join.get(Bar_.baz), value);

The obvious problem here is that I am doing the same join twice, because Fetch<Foo, Bar> doesn't seem to have a method to get a Path. Is there any way to avoid having to join twice? Or do I have to stick with good old JPQL with a query as simple as that?

Answer 1

In JPQL the same is actually true in the spec. The JPA spec does not allow an alias to be given to a fetch join. The issue is that you can easily shoot yourself in the foot with this by restricting the context of the join fetch. It is safer to join twice.

This is normally more an issue with ToMany than ToOnes. For example,

Select e from Employee e 
join fetch e.phones p 
where p.areaCode = '613'

This will incorrectly return all Employees that contain numbers in the '613' area code but will left out phone numbers of other areas in the returned list. This means that an employee that had a phone in the 613 and 416 area codes will loose the 416 phone number, so the object will be corrupted.

Granted, if you know what you are doing, the extra join is not desirable, some JPA providers may allow aliasing the join fetch, and may allow casting the Criteria Fetch to a Join.