Introduce delete(Specification) on JpaSpecificationExecutor.

Ever since JPA 2.1, CriteriaBuilder has offered createCriteriaDelete, returning a CriteriaDelete. With Spring Data JPA 3.0 rebased on JPA 3.0, we are able to guarantee this SPI, and hence rollout support for this feature.

See #1262.

spring-data-jpa/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/jpa/domain/Specification.java

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 package org.springframework.data.jpa.domain;
 
 import jakarta.persistence.criteria.CriteriaBuilder;
+import jakarta.persistence.criteria.CriteriaDelete;
 import jakarta.persistence.criteria.CriteriaQuery;
 import jakarta.persistence.criteria.Predicate;
 import jakarta.persistence.criteria.Root;

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

@@ -87,6 +87,14 @@ public interface JpaSpecificationExecutor<T> {
 	 */
 	boolean exists(Specification<T> spec);
 
+	/**
+	 * Deletes by the {@link Specification} and returns the number of rows deleted.
+	 *
+	 * @param spec the {@link Specification} to use for the existence check. Must not be {@literal null}.
+	 * @return the number of entities deleted
+	 */
+	long delete(Specification<T> spec);
+
 	/**
 	 * Returns entities matching the given {@link Specification} applying the {@code queryFunction} that defines the query
 	 * and its result type.

spring-data-jpa/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/jpa/repository/support/SimpleJpaRepository.java

@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import jakarta.persistence.Parameter;
 import jakarta.persistence.Query;
 import jakarta.persistence.TypedQuery;
 import jakarta.persistence.criteria.CriteriaBuilder;
+import jakarta.persistence.criteria.CriteriaDelete;
 import jakarta.persistence.criteria.CriteriaQuery;
 import jakarta.persistence.criteria.ParameterExpression;
 import jakarta.persistence.criteria.Path;
@@ -485,6 +486,21 @@ public class SimpleJpaRepository<T, ID> implements JpaRepositoryImplementation<T
 		return query.setMaxResults(1).getResultList().size() == 1;
 	}
 
+	@Override
+	public long delete(Specification<T> spec) {
+
+		CriteriaBuilder builder = this.em.getCriteriaBuilder();
+		CriteriaDelete<T> delete = builder.createCriteriaDelete(getDomainClass());
+
+		Predicate predicate = spec.toPredicate(delete.from(getDomainClass()), null, builder);
+
+		if (predicate != null) {
+			delete.where(predicate);
+		}
+
+		return this.em.createQuery(delete).executeUpdate();
+	}
+
 	@Override
 	public <S extends T> List<S> findAll(Example<S> example) {
 		return getQuery(new ExampleSpecification<>(example, escapeCharacter), example.getProbeType(), Sort.unsorted())

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

@@ -2838,6 +2838,19 @@ public class UserRepositoryTests {
 		assertThat(repository.exists(hundredYearsOld)).isTrue();
 	}
 
+	@Test // GH-1262
+	void deleteWithSpec() {
+
+		flushTestUsers();
+
+		Specification<User> usersWithEInTheirName = userHasFirstnameLike("e");
+
+		long initialCount = repository.count();
+		assertThat(repository.delete(usersWithEInTheirName)).isEqualTo(3L);
+		long finalCount = repository.count();
+		assertThat(initialCount - finalCount).isEqualTo(3L);
+	}
+
 	private Page<User> executeSpecWithSort(Sort sort) {
 
 		flushTestUsers();

src/main/asciidoc/jpa.adoc

@@ -943,6 +943,21 @@ List<Customer> customers = customerRepository.findAll(
 `Specification` offers some "`glue-code`" default methods to chain and combine `Specification` instances. These methods let you extend your data access layer by creating new `Specification` implementations and combining them with already existing implementations.
 ====
 
+And with JPA 2.1, the `CriteriaBuilder` API introduced `CriteriaDelete`. This is provided through `JpaSpecificationExecutor`'s `delete(Specification)` API.
+
+.Using a `Specification` to delete entries.
+====
+[source, java]
+----
+Specification<User> ageLessThan18 = (root, query, cb) -> cb.lessThan(root.get("age").as(Integer.class), 18)
+
+userRepository.delete(ageLessThan18);
+----
+The `Specification` builds up a criteria where the `age` field (cast as an integer) is less than `18`.
+Passed on to the `userRepository`, it will use JPA's `CriteriaDelete` feature to generate the right `DELETE` operation.
+It then returns the number of entities deleted.
+====
+
 include::{spring-data-commons-docs}/query-by-example.adoc[leveloffset=+1]
 include::query-by-example.adoc[leveloffset=+1]