Query from combined spring data specification has multiple joins on same table

There's no out of the box way unfortunately. Spring Data internally uses some reuse of joins within QueryUtils.getOrCreateJoin(…). You could find out about potentially already existing joins on the root and reuse them where appropriate:

private static Join<?, ?> getOrCreateJoin(From<?, ?> from, String attribute) {

  for (Join<?, ?> join : from.getJoins()) {

    boolean sameName = join.getAttribute().getName().equals(attribute);

    if (sameName && join.getJoinType().equals(JoinType.LEFT)) {
      return join;
    }
  }

  return from.join(attribute, JoinType.LEFT);
}

Note, that this only works as we effectively know which joins we add ourselves. When using Specifications you should also do, but I just want to make sure nobody considers this a general solution for all cases.

Based on @Oliver answer I created an extension to Specification interface

JoinableSpecification.java

public interface JoinableSpecification<T> extends Specification<T>{

  /**
   * Allow reuse of join when possible
   * @param <K>
   * @param <Z>
   * @param query
   * @return
   */

  @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
  public default <K, Z> ListJoin<K, Z> joinList(From<?, K> from, ListAttribute<K,Z> attribute,JoinType joinType) {

    for (Join<K, ?> join : from.getJoins()) {

      boolean sameName = join.getAttribute().getName().equals(attribute.getName());

      if (sameName && join.getJoinType().equals(joinType)) {

        return (ListJoin<K, Z>) join; //TODO verify Z type it should be of Z after all its ListAttribute<K,Z>
      }
    }
    return from.join(attribute, joinType);
  }

  /**
   * Allow reuse of join when possible
   * @param <K>
   * @param <Z>
   * @param query
   * @return
   */
  @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
  public default <K, Z> SetJoin<K, Z> joinList(From<?, K> from, SetAttribute<K,Z> attribute,JoinType joinType) {

    for (Join<K, ?> join : from.getJoins()) {

      boolean sameName = join.getAttribute().getName().equals(attribute.getName());

      if (sameName && join.getJoinType().equals(joinType)) {
        return (SetJoin<K, Z>) join; //TODO verify Z type it should be of Z after all its ListAttribute<K,Z>
      }
    }
    return from.join(attribute, joinType);
  }

  /**
   * Allow reuse of join when possible
   * @param <K>
   * @param <Z>
   * @param query
   * @return
   */
  @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
  public default <K, Z> Join<K, Z> joinList(From<?, K> from, SingularAttribute<K,Z> attribute,JoinType joinType) {

    for (Join<K, ?> join : from.getJoins()) {

      boolean sameName = join.getAttribute().getName().equals(attribute.getName());

      if (sameName && join.getJoinType().equals(joinType)) {
        return (Join<K, Z>) join; //TODO verify Z type it should be of Z after all its ListAttribute<K,Z>
      }
    }
    return from.join(attribute, joinType);
  }

}

How to use

class StaffSpecs {
 public static Specification<Staff> hasTimeZone(Integer timeZone) {
    return new JoinableSpecification<Staff>() {
        @Override
        public Predicate toPredicate(Root<Staff> root, CriteriaQuery<?> query, CriteriaBuilder cb) {
            Path<Integer> timeZonePath = this.joinList(root,Staff_.location,JoinType.INNER).get(Location_.timeZone);
            return cb.equal(timeZonePath, timeZone);
        }
    }
}

 public static Specification<Staff> hasCity(Integer city) {
    return new JoinableSpecification<Staff>() {
        @Override
        public Predicate toPredicate(Root<Staff> root, CriteriaQuery<?> query, CriteriaBuilder cb) {
            Path<Integer> cityPath = this.joinList(root,Staff_.location,JoinType.INNER).get(Location_.city);
            return cb.equal(cityPath, city);
        }
    }
}