Use implicit join to create Predicate if possible

spring-data-jpa/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/jpa/repository/query/JpaQueryCreator.java

@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@
  * @author Moritz Becker
  * @author Andrey Kovalev
  * @author Greg Turnquist
+ * @author Yanming Zhou
  */
 public class JpaQueryCreator extends AbstractQueryCreator<CriteriaQuery<? extends Object>, Predicate> {
 
@@ -384,7 +385,7 @@ private Expression<? extends Comparable> getComparablePath(Root<?> root, Part pa
 		}
 
 		private <T> Expression<T> getTypedPath(Root<?> root, Part part) {
-			return toExpressionRecursively(root, part.getProperty());
+			return toExpressionRecursivelyForPredicate(root, part.getProperty());
 		}
 
 		private <T> Expression<T> traversePath(Path<?> root, PropertyPath path) {

spring-data-jpa/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/jpa/repository/query/QueryUtils.java

@@ -761,6 +761,32 @@ private static jakarta.persistence.criteria.Order toJpaOrder(Order order, From<?
 		}
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Creates an expression with joins by recursively navigating the path for constructing {@code Predicate},
+	 * it will use implicit join if possible to eliminate unnecessary join.
+	 *
+	 * @param from the {@link From}
+	 * @param property the property path
+	 * @param <T> the type of the expression
+	 * @return the expression
+	 */
+	@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
+	static <T> Expression<T> toExpressionRecursivelyForPredicate(From<?, ?> from, PropertyPath property) {
+
+		// see https://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/orm/current/userguide/html_single/Hibernate_User_Guide.html#hql-implicit-join
+		Path<?> path = from;
+		while (!property.isCollection()) {
+			path = path.get(property.getSegment());
+			if (property.hasNext()) {
+				property = Objects.requireNonNull(property.next(), "An element of the property path is null");
+			} else {
+				return (Expression<T>) path;
+			}
+		}
+
+		return toExpressionRecursively(from, property);
+	}
+
 	static <T> Expression<T> toExpressionRecursively(From<?, ?> from, PropertyPath property) {
 		return toExpressionRecursively(from, property, false);
 	}

spring-data-jpa/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/jpa/repository/query/JpaQueryCreatorIntegrationTests.java

@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2017-2024 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.query;
+
+import jakarta.persistence.EntityManager;
+import jakarta.persistence.PersistenceContext;
+import jakarta.persistence.TypedQuery;
+import org.hibernate.query.spi.SqmQuery;
+import org.hibernate.query.sqm.tree.from.SqmRoot;
+import org.hibernate.query.sqm.tree.select.SqmQuerySpec;
+import org.hibernate.query.sqm.tree.select.SqmSelectStatement;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.ExtendWith;
+import org.springframework.data.jpa.domain.sample.User;
+import org.springframework.data.jpa.provider.PersistenceProvider;
+import org.springframework.data.projection.SpelAwareProxyProjectionFactory;
+import org.springframework.data.repository.Repository;
+import org.springframework.data.repository.core.support.AbstractRepositoryMetadata;
+import org.springframework.data.repository.query.parser.PartTree;
+import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration;
+import org.springframework.test.context.junit.jupiter.SpringExtension;
+
+import java.lang.reflect.Method;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
+
+/**
+ * Integration tests for {@link JpaQueryCreator}.
+ *
+ * @author Yanming Zhou
+ */
+@ExtendWith(SpringExtension.class)
+@ContextConfiguration("classpath:infrastructure.xml")
+class JpaQueryCreatorIntegrationTests {
+
+	@PersistenceContext
+	EntityManager entityManager;
+
+	@Test // GH-3349
+	void implicitJoin() throws Exception {
+
+		Method method = SomeRepository.class.getMethod("findByManagerId", Integer.class);
+
+		PersistenceProvider provider = PersistenceProvider.fromEntityManager(entityManager);
+		JpaQueryMethod queryMethod = new JpaQueryMethod(method,
+				AbstractRepositoryMetadata.getMetadata(SomeRepository.class), new SpelAwareProxyProjectionFactory(), provider);
+
+		PartTree tree = new PartTree("findByManagerId", User.class);
+		ParameterMetadataProvider metadataProvider = new ParameterMetadataProvider(entityManager.getCriteriaBuilder(),
+				queryMethod.getParameters(), EscapeCharacter.DEFAULT);
+
+		JpaQueryCreator creator = new JpaQueryCreator(tree, queryMethod.getResultProcessor().getReturnedType(),
+				entityManager.getCriteriaBuilder(), metadataProvider);
+
+		TypedQuery<?> query = entityManager.createQuery(creator.createQuery());
+		SqmQuery sqmQuery = ((SqmQuery) query);
+		SqmSelectStatement<?> statement = (SqmSelectStatement<?>) sqmQuery.getSqmStatement();
+		SqmQuerySpec<?> spec = (SqmQuerySpec<?>) statement.getQueryPart();
+		SqmRoot<?> root = spec.getFromClause().getRoots().get(0);
+
+		assertThat(root.getJoins()).isEmpty();
+	}
+
+	interface SomeRepository extends Repository<User, Integer> {
+		List<User> findByManagerId(Integer managerId);
+	}
+}