Running Native Queries in H2 Database with Spring Boot

October 14, 2025

#1

This guide shows how to run native SQL queries in Spring Boot with the H2 database using Spring Data JPA.

1. Add Dependencies

In pom.xml:

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.h2database</groupId>
  <artifactId>h2</artifactId>
  <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
</dependency>

2. Configure H2

In application.properties:

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:h2:mem:testdb
spring.datasource.driver-class-name=org.h2.Driver
spring.datasource.username=sa
spring.datasource.password=
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=update
spring.h2.console.enabled=true

3. Create Entity

import jakarta.persistence.*;

@Entity
public class Customer {
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    private Long id;
    private String name;
    private String email;
}

4. Repository with Native Query

import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.Query;
import org.springframework.data.repository.query.Param;
import org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.JpaRepository;
import java.util.List;

public interface CustomerRepository extends JpaRepository<Customer, Long> {
    
    @Query(value = "SELECT * FROM CUSTOMER WHERE email = :email", nativeQuery = true)
    Customer findByEmail(@Param("email") String email);

    @Query(value = "SELECT * FROM CUSTOMER WHERE name LIKE %:name%", nativeQuery = true)
    List<Customer> searchByName(@Param("name") String name);
}

5. Controller

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.*;
import java.util.List;

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/customers")
public class CustomerController {
    private final CustomerRepository repo;

    public CustomerController(CustomerRepository repo) {
        this.repo = repo;
    }

    @GetMapping("/by-email")
    public Customer byEmail(@RequestParam String email) {
        return repo.findByEmail(email);
    }

    @GetMapping("/search")
    public List<Customer> search(@RequestParam String name) {
        return repo.searchByName(name);
    }
}

6. Run and Test

Start the app:

mvn spring-boot:run

• GET /customers/by-email?email=test@mail.com → find by email
• GET /customers/search?name=John → search customers by name