How to perform native SQL queries within Hibernate?.

In Hibernate, the method createNativeQuery of the EntityManager or Session object is used to execute native SQL queries.

Example using EntityManager:

String sql = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE status = :status";
List<Object[]> results = entityManager.createNativeQuery(sql)
    .setParameter("status", "ACTIVE")
    .getResultList();

To get entity objects, you can specify the class:

List<User> users = entityManager.createNativeQuery(sql, User.class)
    .setParameter("status", "ACTIVE")
    .getResultList();

Similarly, in Hibernate Session:

List<User> users = session.createNativeQuery(sql, User.class)
    .setParameter("status", "ACTIVE")
    .getResultList();

Thus, native SQL queries allow executing arbitrary queries against the database, bypassing HQL or Criteria API.