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JaQu stands for Java Query and allows to access databases using pure Java. JaQu provides a fluent interface (or internal DSL) for building SQL statements. JaQu replaces SQL, JDBC, and persistence frameworks such as Hibernate. JaQu is something like LINQ for Java (LINQ stands for "language integrated query" and is a Microsoft .NET technology).

http://www.h2database.com/html/jaqu.html^{Image Removed}

They also have a nice list of similar projects on their website.

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a complete alternative to JDBC
designed to compete with more powerful database query tools like jOOQ or Querydsl
designed to compete with enterprise ORM tools like Hibernate or mybatis

http://iciql.com/^{Image Removed}

Querydsl

Querydsl (spell: query diesel) is a framework which enables the construction of statically typed SQL-like queries. Instead of writing queries as inline strings or externalizing them into XML files they can be constructed via a fluentDSL/API like Querydsl.

http://source.mysema.com/display/querydsl/Querydsl^{Image Removed}

jlibs DAOPattern

J2EE DAO Pattern made easier

http://code.google.com/p/jlibs/wiki/DAOPattern^{Image Removed}

jOOQ

A simple and intuitive approach to interface your database with Java: jOOQ is Java Object Oriented Querying. jOOQ brings the relational world to Java without covering up its origins. jOOQ is relational. And object oriented. Just in a different way.

http://www.jooq.org/^{Image Removed}

Torpedoquery

Finally you can now use your real classes to construct queries and use the power of your IDE to maintain and validate your queries.

http://torpedoquery.org/^{Image Removed}

Squeryl (Scala)

A Scala ORM and DSL for talking with Databases with minimum verbosity and maximum type safety http://squeryl.org/^{Image Removed}

JDBI

JDBI is a SQL convenience library for Java. It attempts to expose relational database access in idiommatic Java, using collections, beans, and so on, while maintaining the same level of detail as JDBC. It exposes two different style APIs, a fluent style and a sql object style.

http://www.jdbi.org/^{Image Removed}

Slick (Scala)

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• Lifted query embedding (fully featured, composable, uses lifted types, evolved from ScalaQuery)
• Direct query embedding (experimental, limited features, uses ordinary Scala types, based on macros)
• Simple execution of raw SQL queries
• Session management based on JDBC Connections

http://slick.typesafe.com/^{Image Removed}

ScalikeJDBC (Scala)

ScalikeJDBC is A tidy SQL-based DB access library for Scala developers. This library naturally wraps JDBC APIs and provides you easy-to-use APIs.

https://github.com/seratch/scalikejdbc^{Image Removed}

Discontinued

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jPersist is an extremely powerful object-relational persistence API that is based on the active-record and data-mapper patterns.

http://www.jpersist.org/^{Image Removed}

eodsql

EoD SQL Allows for fast, simple binding between a Relation Database Query and Java objects.

EoD SQL stands for Ease of Development, the API's key concerns are being:
Lightweight Designed to be small with a low memory footprint
Very Fast By re-using all of it's data as much as possible.
Easy to work with Annotation based, no setup, config or XML files.
Powerful Write your own SQL rather than hope it generates what you want.
Stable

http://java.net/projects/eodsql^{Image Removed}