Find Options

Basic options

All repository and manager find methods accept special options you can use to query data you need without using QueryBuilder:

  • select - indicates which properties of the main object must be selected

userRepository.find({ select: ["firstName", "lastName"] });

  • relations - relations needs to be loaded with the main entity. Sub-relations can also be loaded (shorthand for join and leftJoinAndSelect)

userRepository.find({ relations: ["profile", "photos", "videos"] });
userRepository.find({ relations: ["profile", "photos", "videos", "videos.video_attributes"] });

  • join - joins needs to be performed for the entity. Extended version of "relations".

userRepository.find({
    join: {
        alias: "user",
        leftJoinAndSelect: {
            profile: "user.profile",
            photo: "user.photos",
            video: "user.videos"
        }
    }
});

  • where - simple conditions by which entity should be queried.

userRepository.find({ where: { firstName: "Timber", lastName: "Saw" } });

Querying a column from an embedded entity should be done with respect to the hierarchy in which it was defined. Example:

userRepository.find({ where: { name: { first: "Timber", last: "Saw" } } });

Querying with OR operator:

userRepository.find({
  where: [
    { firstName: "Timber", lastName: "Saw" },
    { firstName: "Stan", lastName: "Lee" }
  ]
});

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "user" WHERE ("firstName" = 'Timber' AND "lastName" = 'Saw') OR ("firstName" = 'Stan' AND "lastName" = 'Lee')

  • order - selection order.

userRepository.find({
    order: {
        name: "ASC",
        id: "DESC"
    }
});

  • withDeleted - include entities which have been soft deleted with softDelete or softRemove, e.g. have their @DeleteDateColumn column set. By default, soft deleted entities are not included.

userRepository.find({
    withDeleted: true
});

find methods which return multiple entities (find, findAndCount, findByIds) also accept following options:

  • skip - offset (paginated) from where entities should be taken.

userRepository.find({
    skip: 5
});

  • take - limit (paginated) - max number of entities that should be taken.

userRepository.find({
    take: 10
});

** If you are using typeorm with MSSQL, and want to use take or limit, you need to use order as well or you will receive the following error: 'Invalid usage of the option NEXT in the FETCH statement.'

userRepository.find({
    order: {
        columnName: 'ASC'
        },
    skip: 0,
    take: 10
})

  • cache - Enables or disables query result caching. See caching for more information and options.

userRepository.find({
    cache: true
})

  • lock - Enables locking mechanism for query. Can be used only in findOne method. lock is an object which can be defined as:

    { mode: "optimistic", version: number|Date }

    or

    { mode: "pessimistic_read"|"pessimistic_write"|"dirty_read"|"pessimistic_partial_write"|"pessimistic_write_or_fail" }

for example:

userRepository.findOne(1, {
    lock: { mode: "optimistic", version: 1 }
})

pessimistic_partial_write and pessimistic_write_or_fail are supported only on Postgres and are equivalents of SELECT .. FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED and SELECT .. FOR UPDATE NOWAIT, accordingly.

Complete example of find options:

userRepository.find({
    select: ["firstName", "lastName"],
    relations: ["profile", "photos", "videos"],
    where: {
        firstName: "Timber",
        lastName: "Saw"
    },
    order: {
        name: "ASC",
        id: "DESC"
    },
    skip: 5,
    take: 10,
    cache: true
});

Advanced options

TypeORM provides a lot of built-in operators that can be used to create more complex comparisons:

  • Not

import {Not} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    title: Not("About #1")
})

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE "title" != 'About #1'

  • LessThan

import {LessThan} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    likes: LessThan(10)
});

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE "likes" < 10

  • LessThanOrEqual

import {LessThanOrEqual} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    likes: LessThanOrEqual(10)
});

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE "likes" <= 10

  • MoreThan

import {MoreThan} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    likes: MoreThan(10)
});

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE "likes" > 10

  • MoreThanOrEqual

import {MoreThanOrEqual} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    likes: MoreThanOrEqual(10)
});

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE "likes" >= 10

  • Equal

import {Equal} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    title: Equal("About #2")
});

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE "title" = 'About #2'

  • Like

import {Like} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    title: Like("%out #%")
});

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE "title" LIKE '%out #%'

  • Between

import {Between} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    likes: Between(1, 10)
});

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE "likes" BETWEEN 1 AND 10

  • In

import {In} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    title: In(["About #2", "About #3"])
});

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE "title" IN ('About #2','About #3')

  • Any

import {Any} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    title: Any(["About #2", "About #3"])
});

will execute following query (Postgres notation):

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE "title" = ANY(['About #2','About #3'])

  • IsNull

import {IsNull} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    title: IsNull()
});

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE "title" IS NULL

  • Raw

import {Raw} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    likes: Raw("dislikes - 4")
});

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE "likes" = "dislikes" - 4

In the simplest case, a raw query is inserted immediately after the equal symbol. But you can also completely rewrite the comparison logic using the function.

import {Raw} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    currentDate: Raw(alias =>`${alias} > NOW()`)
});

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE "currentDate" > NOW()

If you need to provide user input, you should not include the user input directly in your query as this may create a SQL injection vulnerability. Instead, you can use the second argument of the Raw function to provide a list of parameters to bind to the query.

import {Raw} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    currentDate: Raw(alias =>`${alias} > ':date'`, { date: "2020-10-06" })
});

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE "currentDate" > '2020-10-06'

If you need to provide user input that is an array, you can bind them as a list of values in the SQL statement by using the special expression syntax:

import {Raw} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    title: Raw(alias =>`${alias} IN (:...titles)`, { titles: ["Go To Statement Considered Harmful", "Structured Programming"] })
});

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE "titles" IN ('Go To Statement Considered Harmful', 'Structured Programming')

Combining Advanced Options

Also you can combine these operators with Not operator:

import {Not, MoreThan, Equal} from "typeorm";

const loadedPosts = await connection.getRepository(Post).find({
    likes: Not(MoreThan(10)),
    title: Not(Equal("About #2"))
});

will execute following query:

SELECT * FROM "post" WHERE NOT("likes" > 10) AND NOT("title" = 'About #2')
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