Chapter 6. Collection mapping

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Chapter 6. Collection mapping

6.1. Persistent collections
6.2. Collection mappings
6.2.1. Collection foreign keys
6.2.2. Collection elements
6.2.3. Indexed collections
6.2.4. Collections of values and many-to-many associations
6.2.5. One-to-many associations
6.3. Advanced collection mappings
6.3.1. Sorted collections
6.3.2. Bidirectional associations
6.3.3. Bidirectional associations with indexed collections
6.3.4. Ternary associations
6.3.5. Using an <idbag>
6.4. Collection examples

Hibernate requires that persistent collection-valued fields be declared as an interface type. For example:

public class Product {
    private String serialNumber;
    private Set parts = new HashSet();
    
    public Set getParts() { return parts; }
    void setParts(Set parts) { this.parts = parts; }
    public String getSerialNumber() { return serialNumber; }
    void setSerialNumber(String sn) { serialNumber = sn; }
}

The actual interface might be java.util.Set, java.util.Collection, java.util.List, java.util.Map, java.util.SortedSet, java.util.SortedMap or anything you like ("anything you like" means you will have to write an implementation of org.hibernate.usertype.UserCollectionType.)

Notice how the instance variable was initialized with an instance of HashSet. This is the best way to initialize collection valued properties of newly instantiated (non-persistent) instances. When you make the instance persistent, by calling persist() for example, Hibernate will actually replace the HashSet with an instance of Hibernate's own implementation of Set. Be aware of the following errors:

Cat cat = new DomesticCat();
Cat kitten = new DomesticCat();
....
Set kittens = new HashSet();
kittens.add(kitten);
cat.setKittens(kittens);
session.persist(cat);
kittens = cat.getKittens(); // Okay, kittens collection is a Set
(HashSet) cat.getKittens(); // Error!

The persistent collections injected by Hibernate behave like HashMap, HashSet, TreeMap, TreeSet or ArrayList, depending on the interface type.

Collections instances have the usual behavior of value types. They are automatically persisted when referenced by a persistent object and are automatically deleted when unreferenced. If a collection is passed from one persistent object to another, its elements might be moved from one table to another. Two entities cannot share a reference to the same collection instance. Due to the underlying relational model, collection-valued properties do not support null value semantics. Hibernate does not distinguish between a null collection reference and an empty collection.

Use persistent collections the same way you use ordinary Java collections. However, please ensure you understand the semantics of bidirectional associations (these are discussed later).

The Hibernate mapping element used for mapping a collection depends upon the type of interface. For example, a <set> element is used for mapping properties of type Set.

<class name="Product">
    <id name="serialNumber" column="productSerialNumber"/>
    <set name="parts">
        <key column="productSerialNumber" not-null="true"/>
        <one-to-many class="Part"/>
    </set>
</class>

Apart from <set>, there is also <list>, <map>, <bag>, <array> and <primitive-array> mapping elements. The <map> element is representative:

<map
    name="propertyName"                                         (1)
    table="table_name"                                          (2)
    schema="schema_name"                                        (3)
    lazy="true|extra|false"                                     (4)
    inverse="true|false"                                        (5)
    cascade="all|none|save-update|delete|all-delete-orphan|delet(6)e-orphan"
    sort="unsorted|natural|comparatorClass"                     (7)
    order-by="column_name asc|desc"                             (8)
    where="arbitrary sql where condition"                       (9)
    fetch="join|select|subselect"                               (10)
    batch-size="N"                                              (11)
    access="field|property|ClassName"                           (12)
    optimistic-lock="true|false"                                (13)
    mutable="true|false"                                        (14)
    node="element-name|."
    embed-xml="true|false"
>

    <key .... />
    <map-key .... />
    <element .... />
</map>
1

name: the collection property name

2

table (optional - defaults to property name): the name of the collection table. It is not used for one-to-many associations.

3

schema (optional): the name of a table schema to override the schema declared on the root element

4

lazy (optional - defaults to true): disables lazy fetching and specifies that the association is always eagerly fetched. It can also be used to enable "extra-lazy" fetching where most operations do not initialize the collection. This is suitable for large collections.

5

inverse (optional - defaults to false): marks this collection as the "inverse" end of a bidirectional association.

6

cascade (optional - defaults to none): enables operations to cascade to child entities.

7

sort (optional): specifies a sorted collection with natural sort order or a given comparator class.

8

order-by (optional, JDK1.4 only): specifies a table column or columns that define the iteration order of the Map, Set or bag, together with an optional asc or desc.

9

where (optional): specifies an arbitrary SQL WHERE condition that is used when retrieving or removing the collection. This is useful if the collection needs to contain only a subset of the available data.

10

fetch (optional, defaults to select): chooses between outer-join fetching, fetching by sequential select, and fetching by sequential subselect.

11

batch-size (optional, defaults to 1): specifies a "batch size" for lazily fetching instances of this collection.

12

access (optional - defaults to property): the strategy Hibernate uses for accessing the collection property value.

13

optimistic-lock (optional - defaults to true): specifies that changes to the state of the collection results in increments of the owning entity's version. For one-to-many associations you may want to disable this setting.

14

mutable (optional - defaults to true): a value of false specifies that the elements of the collection never change. This allows for minor performance optimization in some cases.

All collection mappings, except those with set and bag semantics, need an index column in the collection table. An index column is a column that maps to an array index, or List index, or Map key. The index of a Map may be of any basic type, mapped with <map-key>. It can be an entity reference mapped with <map-key-many-to-many>, or it can be a composite type mapped with <composite-map-key>. The index of an array or list is always of type integer and is mapped using the <list-index> element. The mapped column contains sequential integers that are numbered from zero by default.

<list-index 
        column="column_name"                (1)
        base="0|1|..."/>
1

column_name (required): the name of the column holding the collection index values.

1

base (optional - defaults to 0): the value of the index column that corresponds to the first element of the list or array.

<map-key 
        column="column_name"                (1)
        formula="any SQL expression"        (2)
        type="type_name"                    (3)
        node="@attribute-name"
        length="N"/>
1

column (optional): the name of the column holding the collection index values.

2

formula (optional): a SQL formula used to evaluate the key of the map.

3

type (required): the type of the map keys.

<map-key-many-to-many
        column="column_name"                (1)
        formula="any SQL expression"        (2)(3)
        class="ClassName"
/>
1

column (optional): the name of the foreign key column for the collection index values.

2

formula (optional): a SQ formula used to evaluate the foreign key of the map key.

3

class (required): the entity class used as the map key.

If your table does not have an index column, and you still wish to use List as the property type, you can map the property as a Hibernate <bag>. A bag does not retain its order when it is retrieved from the database, but it can be optionally sorted or ordered.

Any collection of values or many-to-many associations requires a dedicated collection table with a foreign key column or columns, collection element column or columns, and possibly an index column or columns.

For a collection of values use the <element> tag. For example:

<element
        column="column_name"                     (1)
        formula="any SQL expression"             (2)
        type="typename"                          (3)
        length="L"
        precision="P"
        scale="S"
        not-null="true|false"
        unique="true|false"
        node="element-name"
/>
1

column (optional): the name of the column holding the collection element values.

2

formula (optional): an SQL formula used to evaluate the element.

3

type (required): the type of the collection element.

A many-to-many association is specified using the <many-to-many> element.

<many-to-many
        column="column_name"                               (1)
        formula="any SQL expression"                       (2)
        class="ClassName"                                  (3)
        fetch="select|join"                                (4)
        unique="true|false"                                (5)
        not-found="ignore|exception"                       (6)
        entity-name="EntityName"                           (7)
        property-ref="propertyNameFromAssociatedClass"     (8)
        node="element-name"
        embed-xml="true|false"
    />
1

column (optional): the name of the element foreign key column.

2

formula (optional): an SQL formula used to evaluate the element foreign key value.

3

class (required): the name of the associated class.

4

fetch (optional - defaults to join): enables outer-join or sequential select fetching for this association. This is a special case; for full eager fetching in a single SELECT of an entity and its many-to-many relationships to other entities, you would enable join fetching,not only of the collection itself, but also with this attribute on the <many-to-many> nested element.

5

unique (optional): enables the DDL generation of a unique constraint for the foreign-key column. This makes the association multiplicity effectively one-to-many.

6

not-found (optional - defaults to exception): specifies how foreign keys that reference missing rows will be handled: ignore will treat a missing row as a null association.

7

entity-name (optional): the entity name of the associated class, as an alternative to class.

8

property-ref (optional): the name of a property of the associated class that is joined to this foreign key. If not specified, the primary key of the associated class is used.

Here are some examples.

A set of strings:

<set name="names" table="person_names">
    <key column="person_id"/>
    <element column="person_name" type="string"/>
</set>

A bag containing integers with an iteration order determined by the order-by attribute:

<bag name="sizes" 
        table="item_sizes" 
        order-by="size asc">
    <key column="item_id"/>
    <element column="size" type="integer"/>
</bag>

An array of entities, in this case, a many-to-many association:

<array name="addresses" 
        table="PersonAddress" 
        cascade="persist">
    <key column="personId"/>
    <list-index column="sortOrder"/>
    <many-to-many column="addressId" class="Address"/>
</array>

A map from string indices to dates:

<map name="holidays" 
        table="holidays" 
        schema="dbo" 
        order-by="hol_name asc">
    <key column="id"/>
    <map-key column="hol_name" type="string"/>
    <element column="hol_date" type="date"/>
</map>

A list of components (this is discussed in the next chapter):

<list name="carComponents" 
        table="CarComponents">
    <key column="carId"/>
    <list-index column="sortOrder"/>
    <composite-element class="CarComponent">
        <property name="price"/>
        <property name="type"/>
        <property name="serialNumber" column="serialNum"/>
    </composite-element>
</list>

A one-to-many association links the tables of two classes via a foreign key with no intervening collection table. This mapping loses certain semantics of normal Java collections:

An association from Product to Part requires the existence of a foreign key column and possibly an index column to the Part table. A <one-to-many> tag indicates that this is a one-to-many association.

<one-to-many 
        class="ClassName"                                  (1)
        not-found="ignore|exception"                       (2)
        entity-name="EntityName"                           (3)
        node="element-name"
        embed-xml="true|false"
    />
1

class (required): the name of the associated class.

2

not-found (optional - defaults to exception): specifies how cached identifiers that reference missing rows will be handled. ignore will treat a missing row as a null association.

3

entity-name (optional): the entity name of the associated class, as an alternative to class.

The <one-to-many> element does not need to declare any columns. Nor is it necessary to specify the table name anywhere.

The following example shows a map of Part entities by name, where partName is a persistent property of Part. Notice the use of a formula-based index:

<map name="parts"
        cascade="all">
    <key column="productId" not-null="true"/>
    <map-key formula="partName"/>
    <one-to-many class="Part"/>
</map>

Hibernate supports collections implementing java.util.SortedMap and java.util.SortedSet. You must specify a comparator in the mapping file:

<set name="aliases" 
            table="person_aliases" 
            sort="natural">
    <key column="person"/>
    <element column="name" type="string"/>
</set>

<map name="holidays" sort="my.custom.HolidayComparator">
    <key column="year_id"/>
    <map-key column="hol_name" type="string"/>
    <element column="hol_date" type="date"/>
</map>

Allowed values of the sort attribute are unsorted, natural and the name of a class implementing java.util.Comparator.

Sorted collections actually behave like java.util.TreeSet or java.util.TreeMap.

If you want the database itself to order the collection elements, use the order-by attribute of set, bag or map mappings. This solution is only available under JDK 1.4 or higher and is implemented using LinkedHashSet or LinkedHashMap. This performs the ordering in the SQL query and not in the memory.

<set name="aliases" table="person_aliases" order-by="lower(name) asc">
    <key column="person"/>
    <element column="name" type="string"/>
</set>

<map name="holidays" order-by="hol_date, hol_name">
    <key column="year_id"/>
    <map-key column="hol_name" type="string"/>
    <element column="hol_date type="date"/>
</map>

Associations can even be sorted by arbitrary criteria at runtime using a collection filter():

sortedUsers = s.createFilter( group.getUsers(), "order by this.name" ).list();

A bidirectional association allows navigation from both "ends" of the association. Two kinds of bidirectional association are supported:

You can specify a bidirectional many-to-many association by mapping two many-to-many associations to the same database table and declaring one end as inverse. You cannot select an indexed collection.

Here is an example of a bidirectional many-to-many association that illustrates how each category can have many items and each item can be in many categories:

<class name="Category">
    <id name="id" column="CATEGORY_ID"/>
    ...
    <bag name="items" table="CATEGORY_ITEM">
        <key column="CATEGORY_ID"/>
        <many-to-many class="Item" column="ITEM_ID"/>
    </bag>
</class>

<class name="Item">
    <id name="id" column="ITEM_ID"/>
    ...

    <!-- inverse end -->
    <bag name="categories" table="CATEGORY_ITEM" inverse="true">
        <key column="ITEM_ID"/>
        <many-to-many class="Category" column="CATEGORY_ID"/>
    </bag>
</class>

Changes made only to the inverse end of the association are not persisted. This means that Hibernate has two representations in memory for every bidirectional association: one link from A to B and another link from B to A. This is easier to understand if you think about the Java object model and how a many-to-many relationship in Javais created:

category.getItems().add(item);          // The category now "knows" about the relationship
item.getCategories().add(category);     // The item now "knows" about the relationship

session.persist(item);                   // The relationship won't be saved!
session.persist(category);               // The relationship will be saved

The non-inverse side is used to save the in-memory representation to the database.

You can define a bidirectional one-to-many association by mapping a one-to-many association to the same table column(s) as a many-to-one association and declaring the many-valued end inverse="true".

<class name="Parent">
    <id name="id" column="parent_id"/>
    ....
    <set name="children" inverse="true">
        <key column="parent_id"/>
        <one-to-many class="Child"/>
    </set>
</class>

<class name="Child">
    <id name="id" column="child_id"/>
    ....
    <many-to-one name="parent" 
        class="Parent" 
        column="parent_id"
        not-null="true"/>
</class>

Mapping one end of an association with inverse="true" does not affect the operation of cascades as these are orthogonal concepts.

A bidirectional association where one end is represented as a <list> or <map>, requires special consideration. If there is a property of the child class that maps to the index column you can use inverse="true" on the collection mapping:

<class name="Parent">
    <id name="id" column="parent_id"/>
    ....
    <map name="children" inverse="true">
        <key column="parent_id"/>
        <map-key column="name" 
            type="string"/>
        <one-to-many class="Child"/>
    </map>
</class>

<class name="Child">
    <id name="id" column="child_id"/>
    ....
    <property name="name" 
        not-null="true"/>
    <many-to-one name="parent" 
        class="Parent" 
        column="parent_id"
        not-null="true"/>
</class>

If there is no such property on the child class, the association cannot be considered truly bidirectional. That is, there is information available at one end of the association that is not available at the other end. In this case, you cannot map the collection inverse="true". Instead, you could use the following mapping:

<class name="Parent">
    <id name="id" column="parent_id"/>
    ....
    <map name="children">
        <key column="parent_id"
            not-null="true"/>
        <map-key column="name" 
            type="string"/>
        <one-to-many class="Child"/>
    </map>
</class>

<class name="Child">
    <id name="id" column="child_id"/>
    ....
    <many-to-one name="parent" 
        class="Parent" 
        column="parent_id"
        insert="false"
        update="false"
        not-null="true"/>
</class>

Note that in this mapping, the collection-valued end of the association is responsible for updates to the foreign key.

This section covers collection examples.

The following class has a collection of Child instances:

package eg;
import java.util.Set;

public class Parent {
    private long id;
    private Set children;

    public long getId() { return id; }
    private void setId(long id) { this.id=id; }

    private Set getChildren() { return children; }
    private void setChildren(Set children) { this.children=children; }

    ....
    ....
}

If each child has, at most, one parent, the most natural mapping is a one-to-many association:

<hibernate-mapping>

    <class name="Parent">
        <id name="id">
            <generator class="sequence"/>
        </id>
        <set name="children">
            <key column="parent_id"/>
            <one-to-many class="Child"/>
        </set>
    </class>

    <class name="Child">
        <id name="id">
            <generator class="sequence"/>
        </id>
        <property name="name"/>
    </class>

</hibernate-mapping>

This maps to the following table definitions:

create table parent ( id bigint not null primary key )
create table child ( id bigint not null primary key, name varchar(255), parent_id bigint )
alter table child add constraint childfk0 (parent_id) references parent

If the parent is required, use a bidirectional one-to-many association:

<hibernate-mapping>

    <class name="Parent">
        <id name="id">
            <generator class="sequence"/>
        </id>
        <set name="children" inverse="true">
            <key column="parent_id"/>
            <one-to-many class="Child"/>
        </set>
    </class>

    <class name="Child">
        <id name="id">
            <generator class="sequence"/>
        </id>
        <property name="name"/>
        <many-to-one name="parent" class="Parent" column="parent_id" not-null="true"/>
    </class>

</hibernate-mapping>

Notice the NOT NULL constraint:

create table parent ( id bigint not null primary key )
create table child ( id bigint not null
                     primary key,
                     name varchar(255),
                     parent_id bigint not null )
alter table child add constraint childfk0 (parent_id) references parent

Alternatively, if this association must be unidirectional you can declare the NOT NULL constraint on the <key> mapping:

<hibernate-mapping>

    <class name="Parent">
        <id name="id">
            <generator class="sequence"/>
        </id>
        <set name="children">
            <key column="parent_id" not-null="true"/>
            <one-to-many class="Child"/>
        </set>
    </class>

    <class name="Child">
        <id name="id">
            <generator class="sequence"/>
        </id>
        <property name="name"/>
    </class>

</hibernate-mapping>

On the other hand, if a child has multiple parents, a many-to-many association is appropriate:

<hibernate-mapping>

    <class name="Parent">
        <id name="id">
            <generator class="sequence"/>
        </id>
        <set name="children" table="childset">
            <key column="parent_id"/>
            <many-to-many class="Child" column="child_id"/>
        </set>
    </class>

    <class name="Child">
        <id name="id">
            <generator class="sequence"/>
        </id>
        <property name="name"/>
    </class>

</hibernate-mapping>

Table definitions:

create table parent ( id bigint not null primary key )
create table child ( id bigint not null primary key, name varchar(255) )
create table childset ( parent_id bigint not null,
                        child_id bigint not null,
                        primary key ( parent_id, child_id ) )
alter table childset add constraint childsetfk0 (parent_id) references parent
alter table childset add constraint childsetfk1 (child_id) references child

For more examples and a complete explanation of a parent/child relationship mapping, see Chapter 21, Example: Parent/Child for more information.

Even more complex association mappings are covered in the next chapter.