[appendix]
[[repository-query-return-types]]
= Repository query return types

[[appendix.query.return.types]]
== Supported Query Return Types

The following table lists the return types generally supported by Spring Data repositories.
However, consult the store-specific documentation for the exact list of supported return types, because some types listed here might not be supported in a particular store.

NOTE: Geospatial types (such as `GeoResult`, `GeoResults`, and `GeoPage`) are available only for data stores that support geospatial queries.
Some store modules may define their own result wrapper types.

.Query return types
[options="header",cols="1,3"]
|===============
|Return type|Description
|`void`|Denotes no return value.
|Primitives|Java primitives.
|Wrapper types|Java wrapper types.
|`T`|A unique entity. Expects the query method to return one result at most. If no result is found, `null` is returned. More than one result triggers an `IncorrectResultSizeDataAccessException`.
|`Iterator<T>`|An `Iterator`.
|`Collection<T>`|A `Collection`.
|`List<T>`|A `List`.
|`Optional<T>`|A Java 8 or Guava `Optional`. Expects the query method to return one result at most. If no result is found, `Optional.empty()` or `Optional.absent()` is returned. More than one result triggers an `IncorrectResultSizeDataAccessException`.
|`Option<T>`|Either a Scala or Vavr `Option` type. Semantically the same behavior as Java 8's `Optional`, described earlier.
|`Stream<T>`|A Java 8 `Stream`.
|`Streamable<T>`|A convenience extension of `Iterable` that directly exposes methods to stream, map and filter results, concatenate them etc.
|Types that implement `Streamable` and take a `Streamable` constructor or factory method argument|Types that expose a constructor or `….of(…)`/`….valueOf(…)` factory method taking a `Streamable` as argument. See <<repositories.collections-and-iterables.streamable-wrapper>> for details.
|Vavr `Seq`, `List`, `Map`, `Set`|Vavr collection types. See <<repositories.collections-and-iterables.vavr>> for details.
|`Future<T>`|A `Future`. Expects a method to be annotated with `@Async` and requires Spring's asynchronous method execution capability to be enabled.
|`CompletableFuture<T>`|A Java 8 `CompletableFuture`. Expects a method to be annotated with `@Async` and requires Spring's asynchronous method execution capability to be enabled.
|`Slice<T>`|A sized chunk of data with an indication of whether there is more data available. Requires a `Pageable` method parameter.
|`Page<T>`|A `Slice` with additional information, such as the total number of results. Requires a `Pageable` method parameter.
|`GeoResult<T>`|A result entry with additional information, such as the distance to a reference location.
|`GeoResults<T>`|A list of `GeoResult<T>` with additional information, such as the average distance to a reference location.
|`GeoPage<T>`|A `Page` with `GeoResult<T>`, such as the average distance to a reference location.
|`Mono<T>`|A Project Reactor `Mono` emitting zero or one element using reactive repositories. Expects the query method to return one result at most. If no result is found, `Mono.empty()` is returned. More than one result triggers an `IncorrectResultSizeDataAccessException`.
|`Flux<T>`|A Project Reactor `Flux` emitting zero, one, or many elements using reactive repositories. Queries returning `Flux` can emit also an infinite number of elements.
|`Single<T>`|A RxJava `Single` emitting a single element using reactive repositories. Expects the query method to return one result at most. If no result is found, `Mono.empty()` is returned. More than one result triggers an `IncorrectResultSizeDataAccessException`.
|`Maybe<T>`|A RxJava `Maybe` emitting zero or one element using reactive repositories. Expects the query method to return one result at most. If no result is found, `Mono.empty()` is returned. More than one result triggers an `IncorrectResultSizeDataAccessException`.
|`Flowable<T>`|A RxJava `Flowable` emitting zero, one, or many elements using reactive repositories. Queries returning `Flowable` can emit also an infinite number of elements.
|===============
