diff --git a/src/main/java/com/avaje/ebeaninternal/server/expression/DefaultExampleExpression.java b/src/main/java/com/avaje/ebeaninternal/server/expression/DefaultExampleExpression.java
index 47b2415d7..c21867998 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/avaje/ebeaninternal/server/expression/DefaultExampleExpression.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/avaje/ebeaninternal/server/expression/DefaultExampleExpression.java
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ import com.avaje.ebeaninternal.api.SpiExpressionValidation;
 import com.avaje.ebeaninternal.server.core.OrmQueryRequest;
 import com.avaje.ebeaninternal.server.deploy.BeanDescriptor;
 import com.avaje.ebeaninternal.server.deploy.BeanProperty;
+import com.avaje.ebeaninternal.server.deploy.BeanPropertyAssocOne;
+import com.avaje.ebeaninternal.server.query.SplitName;
 
 /**
  * A "Query By Example" type of expression.
@@ -207,25 +209,41 @@ public class DefaultExampleExpression implements SpiExpression, ExampleExpressio
     OrmQueryRequest<?> r = (OrmQueryRequest<?>) request;
     BeanDescriptor<?> beanDescriptor = r.getBeanDescriptor();
 
-    for (BeanProperty beanProperty : beanDescriptor.propertiesAll()) {
-      
-      String propName = beanProperty.getName();
-      Object value = beanProperty.getValue(entity);
+    addExpressions(list, beanDescriptor, entity, null);
 
-      if (beanProperty.isScalar() && value != null) {
-        if (value instanceof String) {
-          list.add(new LikeExpression(propName, (String) value, caseInsensitive, likeType));
-        } else {
-          // exclude the zero values typically to weed out
-          // primitive int and long that initialise to 0
-          if (includeZeros || !isZero(value)) {
-            list.add(new SimpleExpression(propName, Op.EQ, value));
+    return list;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Add expressions to the list for all the non-null properties (and do this recursively).
+   */
+  private void addExpressions(ArrayList<SpiExpression> list, BeanDescriptor<?> beanDescriptor, EntityBean bean, String prefix) {
+
+    for (BeanProperty beanProperty : beanDescriptor.propertiesAll()) {
+
+      if (!beanProperty.isTransient()) {
+        Object value = beanProperty.getValue(bean);
+        if (value != null) {
+          String propName = SplitName.add(prefix, beanProperty.getName());
+          if (beanProperty.isScalar()) {
+            if (value instanceof String) {
+              list.add(new LikeExpression(propName, (String) value, caseInsensitive, likeType));
+            } else {
+              // exclude the zero values typically to weed out
+              // primitive int and long that initialise to 0
+              if (includeZeros || !isZero(value)) {
+                list.add(new SimpleExpression(propName, Op.EQ, value));
+              }
+            }
+
+          } else if ((beanProperty instanceof BeanPropertyAssocOne) && (value instanceof EntityBean)) {
+            BeanPropertyAssocOne assocOne = (BeanPropertyAssocOne)beanProperty;
+            BeanDescriptor targetDescriptor = assocOne.getTargetDescriptor();
+            addExpressions(list, targetDescriptor, (EntityBean)value, propName);
           }
         }
       }
     }
-
-    return list;
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/avaje/ebeaninternal/server/expression/DefaultExampleExpressionTest.java b/src/test/java/com/avaje/ebeaninternal/server/expression/DefaultExampleExpressionTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..978785305
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/com/avaje/ebeaninternal/server/expression/DefaultExampleExpressionTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+package com.avaje.ebeaninternal.server.expression;
+
+import com.avaje.ebean.BaseTestCase;
+import com.avaje.ebean.Ebean;
+import com.avaje.ebean.LikeType;
+import com.avaje.ebean.Query;
+import com.avaje.ebean.bean.EntityBean;
+import com.avaje.ebean.event.BeanQueryRequest;
+import com.avaje.ebeaninternal.api.HashQueryPlanBuilder;
+import com.avaje.ebeaninternal.api.SpiEbeanServer;
+import com.avaje.ebeaninternal.api.SpiQuery;
+import com.avaje.ebeaninternal.server.core.OrmQueryRequest;
+import com.avaje.ebeaninternal.server.deploy.BeanDescriptor;
+import com.avaje.tests.model.basic.Address;
+import com.avaje.tests.model.basic.Customer;
+import com.avaje.tests.model.basic.ResetBasicData;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
+
+
+public class DefaultExampleExpressionTest extends BaseTestCase {
+
+
+  @Test
+  public void test() {
+
+    SpiEbeanServer server = (SpiEbeanServer)Ebean.getDefaultServer();
+    BeanDescriptor<Customer> desc = server.getBeanDescriptor(Customer.class);
+
+    SpiQuery<Customer> query = (SpiQuery<Customer>)server.find(Customer.class);
+
+    Address address = new Address();
+    address.setCity("billingAddress.city");
+
+    Customer customer = new Customer();
+    customer.setName("name");
+    customer.setBillingAddress(address);
+
+
+    DefaultExampleExpression expr = new DefaultExampleExpression((EntityBean)customer, false, LikeType.EQUAL_TO);
+
+
+    BeanQueryRequest<?> request = create(query, desc);
+    HashQueryPlanBuilder builder = new HashQueryPlanBuilder();
+    expr.queryPlanHash(request, builder);
+
+    TDSpiExpressionRequest req = new TDSpiExpressionRequest(desc);
+    expr.addBindValues(req);
+
+    assertThat(req.bindValues).contains("name", "billingAddress.city");
+
+    address.setCity("Auckland");
+    customer.setName("Rob");
+
+    ResetBasicData.reset();
+
+    Query<Customer> query1 = server.find(Customer.class)
+        .where().exampleLike(customer)
+        .query();
+
+    query1.findList();
+
+    assertThat(query1.getGeneratedSql()).contains("(t0.name like ?  and t1.city like ? )");
+
+  }
+
+  private <T> OrmQueryRequest<T> create(SpiQuery<T> query, BeanDescriptor<T> desc) {
+    return new OrmQueryRequest<T>(null, null, query, desc, null);
+  }
+
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/avaje/ebeaninternal/server/expression/TDSpiExpressionRequest.java b/src/test/java/com/avaje/ebeaninternal/server/expression/TDSpiExpressionRequest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..478897e38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/com/avaje/ebeaninternal/server/expression/TDSpiExpressionRequest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+package com.avaje.ebeaninternal.server.expression;
+
+import com.avaje.ebeaninternal.api.SpiExpressionRequest;
+import com.avaje.ebeaninternal.server.core.JsonExpressionHandler;
+import com.avaje.ebeaninternal.server.core.SpiOrmQueryRequest;
+import com.avaje.ebeaninternal.server.deploy.BeanDescriptor;
+
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+
+/**
+ * Test double for testing with SpiExpressionRequest.
+ */
+public class TDSpiExpressionRequest implements SpiExpressionRequest {
+
+  List<Object> bindValues = new ArrayList<Object>();
+
+  final BeanDescriptor<?> descriptor;
+
+  public TDSpiExpressionRequest(BeanDescriptor<?> descriptor) {
+    this.descriptor = descriptor;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public JsonExpressionHandler getJsonHandler() {
+    return null;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public String parseDeploy(String logicalProp) {
+    return null;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public BeanDescriptor<?> getBeanDescriptor() {
+    return descriptor;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public SpiOrmQueryRequest<?> getQueryRequest() {
+    return null;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public SpiExpressionRequest append(String sql) {
+    return null;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void addBindEncryptKey(Object encryptKey) {
+
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void addBindValue(Object bindValue) {
+    bindValues.add(bindValue);
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public String getSql() {
+    return null;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public ArrayList<Object> getBindValues() {
+    return null;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public int nextParameter() {
+    return 0;
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public void appendLike() {
+
+  }
+}