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Hibernate Inheritance Using XML

Hibernate offers an advantage over JDBC through its inheritance mapping capabilities, allowing base and derived class objects to be stored in the database. There are three types of inheritance mappings: Table per class hierarchy, Table per sub-class hierarchy, and Table per concrete class hierarchy, each with distinct storage methods. The document explains these mappings with examples, highlighting the use of discriminator columns and how data is organized across tables for each inheritance type.

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7 views

Hibernate Inheritance Using XML

Hibernate offers an advantage over JDBC through its inheritance mapping capabilities, allowing base and derived class objects to be stored in the database. There are three types of inheritance mappings: Table per class hierarchy, Table per sub-class hierarchy, and Table per concrete class hierarchy, each with distinct storage methods. The document explains these mappings with examples, highlighting the use of discriminator columns and how data is organized across tables for each inheritance type.

Uploaded by

madhu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Compared to JDBC we have one main advantage in hibernate, which is hibernate inheritance.

Suppose if we have base and derived classes, now if we save derived(sub) class object, base class
object will also be stored into the database.

But the thing is we must specify in what table we need to save which object data. Hibernate
supports 3 types of Inheritance Mappings:

 Table per class hierarchy


 Table per sub-class hierarchy
 Table per concrete class hierarchy

Here is the explanation and one example on hibernate table per class hierarchy, consider we have
base class named Payment and 2 derived classes like CreditCard, Cheque.

Table per class hierarchy

If we save the derived class object like CreditCard or Cheque then automatically Payment class
object will also be saved into the database, and in the database all the data will be stored into a
single table only, which is base class table for sure.

But here we must use one extra discriminator column in the database, just to identify which derived
class object we have been saved in the table along with the base class object, if we are not using this
column hibernate will throws the exception, see this example so that you will get one idea on this
concept.

Notes:

Payment.java, CreditCard.java, Cheque.java are just pojo classes nothing to explain, but see in
CreditCard.java, Cheque.java i have inherited the Payment.java.

In this inheritance concept, mapping file is the central part, see in line number 10, we added one
new line discriminator, after the id element just to identify which derived class object we have been
saved in the table (see the oracle console once)

every thing has been saved in a single table

Hibernate Inheritance: Table Per subClass Hierarchy

This is also just like previous example, but some changes are there, in table per class hierarchy all the
data was saved in a single table but here,

x number of classes = x number of tables in the database

If we save the CreditCard class object, then first hibernate will saves the data related to super class
object into the super class related table in the database and then CreditCard object data in
CreditCard related table in the database, so first base class data will be saved
Notes:

In the mapping file, <key –> element is because, once we save the derived class object, then
hibernate will first save the baseclass object then derived class object right ..!, so at the time of
saving the derived class object hibernate will copy the primary key value of the base class into the
corresponding derived class, see in the above output 10 copied into dummy1 column of CreditCard
table and 11 copied into Dummy2 column of the cheque table

Hibernate Inheritance: Table Per Concrete Class Hierarchy

Something like previous example but the changes are at mapping file only, and one more thing is..

x number of derived classes = x number of tables in the database

Once we save the derived class object, then derived class data and base class data will be saved in
the derived class related table in the database

for this type we need the tables for derived classes, but not for the base class

in the mapping file we need to use one new element <union-subclass — >under <class —>

Table per hierarchy Example :


Table Per Sub class :
Table Per concrete class :

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