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JPA - Bidirectional ManyToMany Example

[Last Updated: May 31, 2017]
A quick overview of many-to-many relationship in JPA.
  • As compare to unidirectional many-to-many,in bidirectional many-to-many association, both sides will have collections, referencing each other.
  • We have to use @ManyToMany annotation in both entities, on the corresponding collections.
  • From database perceptive there will be no difference, there will still be the same join table with the same columns.
  • Note that unidirectional vs bidirectional is never a concern of database tables, as we can always use queries in both directions without any additional hint or meta-data, whereas, in JPA world we need additional meta-data to tell the underlying ORM to generate additional reverse queries.

Example

@Entity
public class EntityA {
  @Id
  @GeneratedValue
  private int myIdA;
  @ManyToMany
  private List<EntityB> entityBList;
  private String strA;
    .............
}
@Entity
public class EntityB {
  @Id
  @GeneratedValue
  private int myIdB;
  @ManyToMany
  private List<EntityA> entityAList;
  private String strB;
    .............
}
public class ExampleMain {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
      EntityManagerFactory emf = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("test");
      try {
          EntityManager em = emf.createEntityManager();
          nativeQuery(em, "SHOW TABLES");
          nativeQuery(em, "SHOW COLUMNS from EntityA");
          nativeQuery(em, "SHOW COLUMNS from EntityB");
          nativeQuery(em, "SHOW COLUMNS from ENTITYA_ENTITYB");
          emf.close();
      } finally {
          emf.close();
      }
  }

  public static void nativeQuery(EntityManager em, String s) {
      System.out.printf("---------------------------%n'%s'%n", s);
      Query query = em.createNativeQuery(s);
      List list = query.getResultList();
      for (Object o : list) {
          if(o instanceof Object[]) {
              System.out.println(Arrays.toString((Object[]) o));
          }else{
              System.out.println(o);
          }
      }
  }
}

Output

---------------------------
'SHOW TABLES'
[ENTITYA, PUBLIC]
[ENTITYA_ENTITYB, PUBLIC]
[ENTITYB, PUBLIC]
[ENTITYB_ENTITYA, PUBLIC]
---------------------------
'SHOW COLUMNS from EntityA'
[MYIDA, INTEGER(10), NO, PRI, NULL]
[STRA, VARCHAR(255), YES, , NULL]
---------------------------
'SHOW COLUMNS from EntityB'
[MYIDB, INTEGER(10), NO, PRI, NULL]
[STRB, VARCHAR(255), YES, , NULL]
---------------------------
'SHOW COLUMNS from ENTITYA_ENTITYB'
[ENTITYA_MYIDA, INTEGER(10), NO, , NULL]
[ENTITYBLIST_MYIDB, INTEGER(10), NO, , NULL]

A quick overview of the relationship:

Persisting and loading entities

public class ExampleMain2 {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
      EntityManagerFactory emf = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("test");
      try {
          persistEntity(emf);
          nativeQueries(emf);
          loadEntityA(emf);
          loadEntityB(emf);
      } finally {
          emf.close();
      }
  }

  private static void nativeQueries(EntityManagerFactory emf) {
      System.out.println(" --- native queries");
      EntityManager em = emf.createEntityManager();
      ExampleMain.nativeQuery(em, "Select * from EntityA");
      ExampleMain.nativeQuery(em, "Select * from EntityB");
      ExampleMain.nativeQuery(em, "Select * from ENTITYA_ENTITYB");
  }

  private static void persistEntity(EntityManagerFactory emf) {
      System.out.println("-- Persisting entities --");
      EntityManager em = emf.createEntityManager();

      EntityB entityB = new EntityB();
      entityB.setStrB("testStringB");

      EntityB entityB2 = new EntityB();
      entityB2.setStrB("testStringB2");

      EntityA entityA = new EntityA();
      entityA.setStrA("testStringA");
      entityA.setEntityBList(Arrays.asList(entityB, entityB2, entityB));

      EntityA entityA2 = new EntityA();
      entityA2.setStrA("testStringA2");
      entityA2.setEntityBList(Arrays.asList(entityB, entityB2));

      entityB.setEntityAList(Arrays.asList(entityA, entityA2));
      entityB2.setEntityAList(Arrays.asList(entityA, entityA2));

      em.getTransaction().begin();
      em.persist(entityA);
      em.persist(entityA2);
      em.persist(entityB);
      em.persist(entityB2);
      em.getTransaction().commit();

      em.close();
  }

  private static void loadEntityA(EntityManagerFactory emf) {
      System.out.println("-- Loading EntityA --");
      EntityManager em = emf.createEntityManager();
      List<EntityA> entityAList = em.createQuery("Select t from EntityA t").getResultList();
      entityAList.forEach(System.out::println);
      em.close();
  }

  private static void loadEntityB(EntityManagerFactory emf) {
      System.out.println("-- Loading EntityB --");
      EntityManager em = emf.createEntityManager();
      List<EntityB> entityBList = em.createQuery("Select t from EntityB t").getResultList();
      entityBList.forEach((x) -> {
          System.out.println(x);
          System.out.printf("EntityA#entityBList: %s%n", x.getEntityAList());
      });
      em.close();
  }
}

Output

-- Persisting entities --
--- native queries
---------------------------
'Select * from EntityA'
[1, testStringA]
[2, testStringA2]
---------------------------
'Select * from EntityB'
[3, testStringB]
[4, testStringB2]
---------------------------
'Select * from ENTITYA_ENTITYB'
[1, 3]
[1, 4]
[1, 3]
[2, 3]
[2, 4]
-- Loading EntityA --
EntityA{myIdA=1, entityBList=[EntityB{myIdB=3, strB='testStringB'}, EntityB{myIdB=4, strB='testStringB2'}, EntityB{myIdB=3, strB='testStringB'}]}
EntityA{myIdA=2, entityBList=[EntityB{myIdB=3, strB='testStringB'}, EntityB{myIdB=4, strB='testStringB2'}]}
-- Loading EntityB --
EntityB{myIdB=3, strB='testStringB'}
EntityA#entityBList: [EntityA{myIdA=1, entityBList=[EntityB{myIdB=3, strB='testStringB'}, EntityB{myIdB=4, strB='testStringB2'}, EntityB{myIdB=3, strB='testStringB'}]}, EntityA{myIdA=2, entityBList=[EntityB{myIdB=3, strB='testStringB'}, EntityB{myIdB=4, strB='testStringB2'}]}]
EntityB{myIdB=4, strB='testStringB2'}
EntityA#entityBList: [EntityA{myIdA=1, entityBList=[EntityB{myIdB=3, strB='testStringB'}, EntityB{myIdB=4, strB='testStringB2'}, EntityB{myIdB=3, strB='testStringB'}]}, EntityA{myIdA=2, entityBList=[EntityB{myIdB=3, strB='testStringB'}, EntityB{myIdB=4, strB='testStringB2'}]}]

Example Project

Dependencies and Technologies Used:

  • h2 1.4.193: H2 Database Engine.
  • hibernate-core 5.2.8.Final: The core O/RM functionality as provided by Hibernate.
    Implements javax.persistence:javax.persistence-api version 2.1
  • JDK 1.8
  • Maven 3.3.9

Bidirectional Many To Many Example Select All Download
  • jpa-many-to-many-bidirectional-example
    • src
      • main
        • java
          • com
            • logicbig
              • example
                • EntityA.java
          • resources
            • META-INF

    See Also