javasqlspringspring-bootjpa

Spring JPA insertion order for a List

I seem to get mixed answers with this, so I just wanted to clarify the behavior of JpaRepository. Given a JPA entity such as:

public class ItemEntity {
  @Id
  @SequenceGenerator(name = "i_seq", sequenceName = "i_seq, allocationSize = 1)
  @@GeneratedValue(stragegy = GenerationType.SEQUENCE, generator = "i_seq")
  @Column(name = "id", columnDefinition = "bigint")
  private Long id;

  ...
}

The id is generated by a sequence on the database side. My goal is to insert the items in the order of the List.

public void saveAll(List<ItemEntity> items) {
  ...
}

The problem is, I don't believe that JpaRepository.saveAll actually enforces the insertion order. My question is, can I "force" JPA to insert the items in the order of the List by flushing every ItemEntity after the call to save?

public void saveAll(List<ItemEntity> items) {
  for (ItemEntity item : items) {
    jpaRepository.save(item);
    jpaRepository.flush();
  }
}

Or is the flush not required?

Solution

  • Short answer: No, flushing after each save is not required for insertion order — JpaRepository.saveAll already processes entities in the same order as your input List.

    Explanation:
    Spring Data JPA’s default saveAll implementation (in SimpleJpaRepository) iterates over the provided collection and calls save for each element in sequence:

    spring-jpa-saveAll

    JPA itself doesn’t reorder these inserts — the SQL insert statements will be generated in the same sequence unless batching, flush modes, or database-level optimizations alter execution timing.

    If you specifically need to persist and commit immediately, you can use:

    repository.saveAllAndFlush(entities);