basic type or embeddable class.">
Jakarta Persistence (JPA) Annotation Type

jakarta.persistence.ElementCollection

Implemented Interfaces:
Annotation
Target:
Method, Field
Declares a collection of instances of a basic type or embeddable class. Must be specified if the collection is to be mapped by means of a collection table.

The CollectionTable annotation specifies a mapping to a database table.

Example: 

 @Entity
 public class Person {
     @Id
     protected String ssn;
     protected String name;
     ...
     @ElementCollection
     protected Set nickNames = new HashSet();
     ...
 }
See Also:
Since:
Jakarta Persistence (JPA) 2.0

Annotation Elements

Class<?> targetClass
(Optional) The basic or embeddable class that is the element type of the collection.
This element is optional only if the collection field or property is defined using Java generics, and must be specified otherwise. It defaults to the parameterized type of the collection when defined using generics.
Default:
void/class
Since:
Jakarta Persistence (JPA) 1.0
FetchType fetch
(Optional) Whether the collection should be lazily loaded or must be eagerly fetched.
  • The EAGER strategy is a requirement on the persistence provider runtime that the associated entity must be eagerly fetched.
  • The LAZY strategy is a hint to the persistence provider runtime.

If not specified, defaults to LAZY.

Default:
FetchType.LAZY
Since:
Jakarta Persistence (JPA) 1.0

Additional JDK methods inherited from java.lang.annotation.Annotation

annotationType(), equals(Object), hashCode(), toString()