Order a collection using an expression or list of expression written in native SQL. For example, @SQLOrder("first_name, last_name"), @SQLOrder("char_length(name) desc"), or even @SQLOrder("name asc nulls last").

The order is applied by the database when the collection is fetched, but is not maintained by operations that mutate the collection in memory.

If the collection is a java.util.Set or java.util.Map, the order is maintained using a java.util.LinkedHashSet or java.util.LinkedHashMap. If the collection is a bag or java.util.List, the order is maintained by the underlying java.util.ArrayList.

There are several other ways to order or sort a collection:

• Use the JPA-defined jakarta.persistence.OrderBy annotation to order using an expression written in HQL/JPQL. Since HQL is more portable between databases, this is the preferred alternative most of the time.
• Use SortComparator to sort the collection in memory using a java.util.Comparator, or SortNatural to sort the collection in memory according to its natural order.
• Use jakarta.persistence.OrderColumn to maintain the order of a java.util.List with a dedicated index column.

It's illegal to use SQLOrder together with the JPA-defined jakarta.persistence.OrderBy for the same collection.