It however should be noted that JPA can run native (SQL) queries and even lets you map the result onto entities if those are a fit for the result set. I've used

It however should be noted that JPA can run native (SQL) queries and even lets you map the result onto entities if those are a fit for the result set. I've used that with success even for partial results (not all columns selected). It's just not typed but that is true of JPQL as well. And the criteria API is, well, ...special.