A Set is an interface that contains unique elements. These elements don’t maintain any order. A Set can be used when there is a requirement of retrieving unique elements in an unordered manner.
Set Mapping Example
In this example, we embed an object in an entity class and define it as a collection type List.
- private Set<Address> address=new HashSet<Address>();
This example contains the following steps: –
- Create an entity class Employee.java under com.javatpoint.jpa package that contains employee id, name and embedded object (employee Address). The annotation @ElementCollection represents the embedded object.
Employee.java
- package com.javatpoint.jpa;
- import java.util.*;
- import javax.persistence.*;
- @Entity
- public class Employee {
- @Id
- @GeneratedValue(strategy=GenerationType.AUTO)
- private int e_id;
- private String e_name;
- @ElementCollection
- private Set<Address> address=new HashSet<Address>();
- public int getE_id() {
- return e_id;
- }
- public void setE_id(int e_id) {
- this.e_id = e_id;
- }
- public String getE_name() {
- return e_name;
- }
- public void setE_name(String e_name) {
- this.e_name = e_name;
- }
- public Set<Address> getAddress() {
- return address;
- }
- public void setAddress(Set<Address> address) {
- this.address = address;
- }
- }
- Now, create a class of embedded object Address.java under com.javatpoint.jpa package. The annotation @Embeddable represents the embeddable object.
Address.java
- package com.javatpoint.jpa;
- import javax.persistence.*;
- @Embeddable
- public class Address {
- private int e_pincode;
- private String e_city;
- private String e_state;
- public int getE_pincode() {
- return e_pincode;
- }
- public void setE_pincode(int e_pincode) {
- this.e_pincode = e_pincode;
- }
- public String getE_city() {
- return e_city;
- }
- public void setE_city(String e_city) {
- this.e_city = e_city;
- }
- public String getE_state() {
- return e_state;
- }
- public void setE_state(String e_state) {
- this.e_state = e_state;
- }
- }
- Now, map the entity class and other databases confiuguration in Persistence.xml file.
Persistence.xml
- <persistence>
- <persistence-unit name=”Collection_Type”>
- <class>com.javatpoint.jpa.Employee</class>
- <class>com.javatpoint.jpa.Address</class>
- <properties>
- <property name=”javax.persistence.jdbc.driver” value=”com.mysql.jdbc.Driver”/>
- <property name=”javax.persistence.jdbc.url” value=”jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/collection_mapping”/>
- <property name=”javax.persistence.jdbc.user” value=”root”/>
- <property name=”javax.persistence.jdbc.password” value=””/>
- <property name=”eclipselink.logging.level” value=”SEVERE”/>
- <property name=”eclipselink.ddl-generation” value=”create-or-extend-tables”/>
- </properties>
- </persistence-unit>
- </persistence>
- Create a persistence class ListMapping.java under com.javatpoint.collection package to persist the entity object with data.
SetMapping.java
- package com.javatpoint.collection;
- import javax.persistence.*;
- import com.javatpoint.jpa.*;
- public class SetMapping{
- public static void main(String[] args) {
- EntityManagerFactory emf=Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory(“Collection_Type”);
- EntityManager em=emf.createEntityManager();
- em.getTransaction().begin();
- Address a1=new Address();
- a1.setE_pincode(201301);
- a1.setE_city(“Noida”);
- a1.setE_state(“Uttar Pradesh”);
- Address a2=new Address();
- a2.setE_pincode(302001);
- a2.setE_city(“Jaipur”);
- a2.setE_state(“Rajasthan”);
- Address a3=new Address();
- a3.setE_pincode(133301);
- a3.setE_city(“Chandigarh”);
- a3.setE_state(“Punjab”);
- Address a4=new Address();
- a4.setE_pincode(80001);
- a4.setE_city(“Patna”);
- a4.setE_state(“Bihar”);
- Employee e1=new Employee();
- e1.setE_id(1);
- e1.setE_name(“Vijay”);
- Employee e2=new Employee();
- e2.setE_id(2);
- e2.setE_name(“Vijay”);
- Employee e3=new Employee();
- e3.setE_id(3);
- e3.setE_name(“William”);
- Employee e4=new Employee();
- e4.setE_id(4);
- e4.setE_name(“Rahul”);
- e1.getAddress().add(a1);
- e2.getAddress().add(a2);
- e3.getAddress().add(a3);
- e4.getAddress().add(a4);
- em.persist(e1);
- em.persist(e2);
- em.persist(e3);
- em.persist(e4);
- em.getTransaction().commit();
- em.close();
- emf.close();
- }
- }
Output:
After the execution of the program, the following tables are generated under MySQL workbench.
- Employee table – This table contains the employee details. To fetch data, run select * from employee query in MySQL.

- Employee_address table – This table represents the mapping between employee and address table. The data in the table is arranged in an unordered manner.To fetch data, run select * from employee_address query in MySQL.
