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Answer: In Spring Data JPA, you declare a repository interface and get queries either derived from method names (findByLastnameAndAge) or written with @Query. Spring creates the implementation at runtime.

public interface UserRepository extends JpaRepository<User, Long> {
  List<User> findByLastname(String lastname);
  List<User> findByAgeGreaterThanAndActiveTrue(int age);
  List<User> findByEmailContaining(String part);
  List<User> findByIdIn(Collection<Long> ids);

  @Query("select u from User u where u.emailAddress = ?1")
  User findByEmailAddress(String email);
}

Concepts

• Spring Data treats domain types as entities, specifically aggregates.

Derived-query notes

• For Containing and similar, LIKE wildcards in arguments are escaped to match literally.
• In accepts collections, arrays or varargs.

Prefer @Query when names get long.

Claims

• id: C1 claim: JPA queries can be defined manually or derived from the method name. source: S1 evidence: "supports defining a query manually as a String or having it being derived from the"
• id: C2 claim: Containing query arguments get sanitized. source: S1 evidence: "Containing, Contains the respective arguments for these queries will get sanitized."
• id: C3 claim: In and NotIn take any Collection, arrays or varargs. source: S1 evidence: "In and NotIn also take any subclass of Collection as a parameter"
• id: C4 claim: The central interface is Repository. source: S2 evidence: "The central interface in the Spring Data repository abstraction is Repository."
• id: C5 claim: Spring Data considers domain types to be entities, specifically aggregates. source: S2 evidence: "Spring Data considers domain types to be entities, more specifically aggregates."

Sources

• [S1] JPA Query Methods :: Spring Data JPA. Spring (VMware/Broadcom). https://docs.spring.io/spring-data/jpa/reference/jpa/query-methods.html . License: Apache-2.0 (spring-projects repos). Accessed 2026-11-04.
• [S2] Core concepts :: Spring Data JPA. Spring (VMware/Broadcom). https://docs.spring.io/spring-data/jpa/reference/repositories/core-concepts.html . License: Apache-2.0 (spring-projects repos). Accessed 2026-11-04.

License: this note is CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted).

@misc{iil_note_8p1pknsf,
  author = {{iinventedlight}},
  title = {{Spring Data JPA query methods}},
  howpublished = {iinventedlight Library},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-11-04},
  url = {https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/spring-data-jpa-query-methods/},
  note = {Permanent ID iil:note:8p1pknsf. License: CC-BY-4.0.},
}

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