JPA NamedQuery with Join returning empty list - jpa

Question

I've been struggling with a namedquery for a few days. The named query has an inner join to a 2nd table. One added complexity is that the primary key on the 2nd table is a composite key. I have the two tables simplified here:
Table: aname
nameIdx number(9),
firstName varchar2(40),
lastName varchar2(40),
primary key is nameIdx
Table: aname_role
nameIdx number(9), --foreign key to name table
nameType char(2),
inactiveFlag char(1)
composite primary key is on nameIdx and nameType
I am trying to emulate the following sql query in JPQL:
select * from aname n
left join aname_role nr on n.nameidx=nr.nameidx
where nr.nametype='5'
and nr.inactiveflag='N';
This query works as expected in Oracle returning many records. In Java I have these JPA entities:
#Entity
#Table(name="ANAME")
#NamedQueries({
#NamedQuery(name = "AName.findActiveSalesPersons", query = "SELECT a FROM AName a LEFT JOIN a.aNameRoleList r WHERE r.inactiveflag='N' and r.ANameRolePK.nametype='5' ")})
public class AName implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
#Id
#Basic(optional = false)
#NotNull
#Column(name = "NAMEIDX")
private Integer nameidx;
#Column(name = "FIRSTNAME")
private String firstname;
#Column(name = "LASTNAME")
private String lastname;
#OneToMany(cascade = CascadeType.ALL, mappedBy = "aName")
private List<ANameRole> aNameRoleList;
//getters and setters here
and
#Entity
#Table(name = "ANAME_ROLE")
public class ANameRole implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
#EmbeddedId
protected ANameRolePK aNameRolePK;
#Basic(optional = false)
#NotNull
#Column(name = "INACTIVEFLAG")
private Character inactiveflag;
#JoinColumn(name = "NAMEIDX", referencedColumnName = "NAMEIDX", insertable = false, updatable = false)
#ManyToOne(optional = false)
private AName aName;
//getters and setters here
There is also a primary key class ANameRolePK
#Embeddable
public class ANameRolePK implements Serializable {
#Basic(optional = false)
#NotNull
#Column(name = "NAMEIDX")
private int nameidx;
#Basic(optional = false)
#NotNull
#Size(min = 1, max = 2)
#Column(name = "NAMETYPE")
private String nametype;
//getters and setters here
With this setup, including the named query specified in the AName entity above, the following returns an empty result list:
em.createNamedQuery("AName.findActiveSalesPersons").getResultList();
Can anyone point me to what I am doing wrong in this named query?
SELECT a FROM AName a LEFT JOIN a.aNameRoleList r WHERE r.inactiveflag='N' and r.aNameRolePK.nametype='5'
Thanks,
Steve

Answer 1

By default, at least using Hibernate, the default fetch type is Lazy, so you need to do a join fetch instead of a join. Also, you should have select distinct. Try:
SELECT distinct a FROM AName a LEFT JOIN fetch a.aNameRoleList r WHERE r.inactiveflag='N' and r.aNameRolePK.nametype='5'
References: Default fetch type for one-to-one, many-to-one and one-to-many in Hibernate

Answer 2

After more testing, I realized the join was working, but not the "r.aNameRolePK.nametype='5'". But if I changed that to "r.aNameRolePK.nameidx=1" it works. So, it was just the nametype field, which we have defined as a char(2) in the database. The problem is with the spaces in a char field and it is discussed here: Java NamedQuery String Problem. It looks like the recommended way to resolve this is to implement an EclipseLink SessionCustomizer. For testing I changed the named query to
SELECT a
FROM AName a LEFT JOIN a.aNameRoleList r
WHERE r.inactiveflag='N' and trim(trailing from r.aNameRolePK.nametype)=5
This returns the expected records.