Java Persistence with Hibernate

6.3. Mapping collections with annotations

The Hibernate Annotations package supports nonstandard annotations for the mapping of collections that contain value-typed elements, mainly org.hibernate.annotations.CollectionOfElements. Let's walk through some of the most common scenarios again.

6.3.1. Basic collection mapping

The following maps a simple collection of String elements:

@org.hibernate.annotations.CollectionOfElements(
    targetElement = java.lang.String.class
)
@JoinTable(
    name = "ITEM_IMAGE",
    joinColumns = @JoinColumn(name = "ITEM_ID")
)
@Column(name = "FILENAME", nullable = false)
private Set<String> images = new HashSet<String>();

The collection table ITEM_IMAGE has two columns; together, they form the composite primary key. Hibernate ...