Hibernate Session is the interface between java application and hibernate framework. Today we will look into Session important methods for saving and updating data in tables - save, saveOrUpdate, persist, update and merge.
As the method name suggests, hibernate save() can be used to save entity to database. We can invoke this method outside a transaction, that’s why I don’t like this method to save data. If we use this without transaction and we have cascading between entities, then only the primary entity gets saved unless we flush the session. For our testing purposes we have two entity beans - Employee
and Address
.
package com.journaldev.hibernate.model;
import javax.persistence.Access;
import javax.persistence.AccessType;
import javax.persistence.Column;
import javax.persistence.Entity;
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue;
import javax.persistence.GenerationType;
import javax.persistence.Id;
import javax.persistence.OneToOne;
import javax.persistence.Table;
import org.hibernate.annotations.Cascade;
@Entity
@Table(name = "EMPLOYEE")
@Access(value=AccessType.FIELD)
public class Employee {
@Id
@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
@Column(name = "emp_id")
private long id;
@Column(name = "emp_name")
private String name;
@Column(name = "emp_salary")
private double salary;
@OneToOne(mappedBy = "employee")
@Cascade(value = org.hibernate.annotations.CascadeType.ALL)
private Address address;
//Getter setter methods
@Override
public String toString() {
return "Id= " + id + ", Name= " + name + ", Salary= " + salary
+ ", {Address= " + address + "}";
}
}
package com.journaldev.hibernate.model;
import javax.persistence.Access;
import javax.persistence.AccessType;
import javax.persistence.Column;
import javax.persistence.Entity;
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue;
import javax.persistence.Id;
import javax.persistence.OneToOne;
import javax.persistence.PrimaryKeyJoinColumn;
import javax.persistence.Table;
import org.hibernate.annotations.GenericGenerator;
import org.hibernate.annotations.Parameter;
@Entity
@Table(name = "ADDRESS")
@Access(value=AccessType.FIELD)
public class Address {
@Id
@Column(name = "emp_id", unique = true, nullable = false)
@GeneratedValue(generator = "gen")
@GenericGenerator(name = "gen", strategy = "foreign", parameters = { @Parameter(name = "property", value = "employee") })
private long id;
@Column(name = "address_line1")
private String addressLine1;
@Column(name = "zipcode")
private String zipcode;
@Column(name = "city")
private String city;
@OneToOne
@PrimaryKeyJoinColumn
private Employee employee;
//Getter setter methods
@Override
public String toString() {
return "AddressLine1= " + addressLine1 + ", City=" + city
+ ", Zipcode=" + zipcode;
}
}
Here is a simple hibernate program where we are invoking save()
method in different cases.
package com.journaldev.hibernate.main;
import org.hibernate.Session;
import org.hibernate.SessionFactory;
import org.hibernate.Transaction;
import com.journaldev.hibernate.model.Address;
import com.journaldev.hibernate.model.Employee;
import com.journaldev.hibernate.util.HibernateUtil;
public class HibernateSaveExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Prep Work
SessionFactory sessionFactory = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory();
//save example - without transaction
Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();
Employee emp = getTestEmployee();
long id = (Long) session.save(emp);
System.out.println("1. Employee save called without transaction, id="+id);
session.flush(); //address will not get saved without this
System.out.println("*****");
//save example - with transaction
Transaction tx1 = session.beginTransaction();
Session session1 = sessionFactory.openSession();
Employee emp1 = getTestEmployee();
long id1 = (Long) session1.save(emp1);
System.out.println("2. Employee save called with transaction, id="+id1);
System.out.println("3. Before committing save transaction");
tx1.commit();
System.out.println("4. After committing save transaction");
System.out.println("*****");
//save example - existing row in table
Session session6 = sessionFactory.openSession();
Transaction tx6 = session6.beginTransaction();
Employee emp6 = (Employee) session6.load(Employee.class, new Long(20));
//update some data
System.out.println("Employee Details="+emp6);
emp6.setName("New Name");
emp6.getAddress().setCity("New City");
long id6 = (Long) session6.save(emp6);
emp6.setName("New Name1"); // will get updated in database
System.out.println("5. Employee save called with transaction, id="+id6);
System.out.println("6. Before committing save transaction");
tx6.commit();
System.out.println("7. After committing save transaction");
System.out.println("*****");
// Close resources
sessionFactory.close();
}
public static Employee getTestEmployee() {
Employee emp = new Employee();
Address add = new Address();
emp.setName("Test Emp");
emp.setSalary(1000);
add.setAddressLine1("Test address1");
add.setCity("Test City");
add.setZipcode("12121");
emp.setAddress(add);
add.setEmployee(emp);
return emp;
}
}
When we execute above program, it produces following output.
Hibernate: insert into EMPLOYEE (emp_name, emp_salary) values (?, ?)
1. Employee save called without transaction, id=149
Hibernate: insert into ADDRESS (address_line1, city, zipcode, emp_id) values (?, ?, ?, ?)
*****
Hibernate: insert into EMPLOYEE (emp_name, emp_salary) values (?, ?)
2. Employee save called with transaction, id=150
3. Before committing save transaction
Hibernate: insert into ADDRESS (address_line1, city, zipcode, emp_id) values (?, ?, ?, ?)
4. After committing save transaction
*****
Hibernate: select employee0_.emp_id as emp_id1_1_0_, employee0_.emp_name as emp_name2_1_0_, employee0_.emp_salary as emp_sala3_1_0_, address1_.emp_id as emp_id1_0_1_, address1_.address_line1 as address_2_0_1_, address1_.city as city3_0_1_, address1_.zipcode as zipcode4_0_1_ from EMPLOYEE employee0_ left outer join ADDRESS address1_ on employee0_.emp_id=address1_.emp_id where employee0_.emp_id=?
Employee Details=Id= 20, Name= Kumar1, Salary= 1000.0, {Address= AddressLine1= Test address1, City=Blr, Zipcode=12121}
5. Employee save called with transaction, id=20
6. Before committing save transaction
Hibernate: update EMPLOYEE set emp_name=?, emp_salary=? where emp_id=?
Hibernate: update ADDRESS set address_line1=?, city=?, zipcode=? where emp_id=?
7. After committing save transaction
*****
Few important points that we can confirm from above output are:
Hibernate persist is similar to save (with transaction) and it adds the entity object to the persistent context, so any further changes are tracked. If the object properties are changed before the transaction is committed or session is flushed, it will also be saved into database. Second difference is that we can use persist()
method only within the boundary of a transaction, so it’s safe and takes care of any cascaded objects. Finally, persist doesn’t return anything so we need to use the persisted object to get the generated identifier value. Let’s look at hibernate persist with a simple program.
package com.journaldev.hibernate.main;
import org.hibernate.Session;
import org.hibernate.SessionFactory;
import org.hibernate.Transaction;
import com.journaldev.hibernate.model.Employee;
import com.journaldev.hibernate.util.HibernateUtil;
public class HibernatePersistExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Prep Work
SessionFactory sessionFactory = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory();
//persist example - with transaction
Session session2 = sessionFactory.openSession();
Transaction tx2 = session2.beginTransaction();
Employee emp2 = HibernateSaveExample.getTestEmployee();
session2.persist(emp2);
System.out.println("Persist called");
emp2.setName("Kumar"); // will be updated in database too
System.out.println("Employee Name updated");
System.out.println("8. Employee persist called with transaction, id="+emp2.getId()+", address id="+emp2.getAddress().getId());
tx2.commit();
System.out.println("*****");
// Close resources
sessionFactory.close();
}
}
Output produced by above code is:
Hibernate: insert into EMPLOYEE (emp_name, emp_salary) values (?, ?)
8. Employee persist called with transaction, id=158, address id=158
Hibernate: insert into ADDRESS (address_line1, city, zipcode, emp_id) values (?, ?, ?, ?)
Hibernate: update EMPLOYEE set emp_name=?, emp_salary=? where emp_id=?
*****
Notice that first employee object is inserted, then at the time of transaction commit, update query is executed to update the name value. Also mapped object address is saved into database.
Hibernate saveOrUpdate results into insert or update queries based on the provided data. If the data is present in the database, update query is executed. We can use saveOrUpdate()
without transaction also, but again you will face the issues with mapped objects not getting saved if session is not flushed. Hibernate saveOrUpdate adds the entity object to persistent context and track any further changes. Any further changes are saved at the time of committing transaction, like persist.
package com.journaldev.hibernate.main;
import org.hibernate.Session;
import org.hibernate.SessionFactory;
import org.hibernate.Transaction;
import com.journaldev.hibernate.model.Employee;
import com.journaldev.hibernate.util.HibernateUtil;
public class HibernateSaveOrUpdateExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Prep Work
SessionFactory sessionFactory = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory();
//saveOrUpdate example - without transaction
Session session5 = sessionFactory.openSession();
Employee emp5 = HibernateSaveExample.getTestEmployee();
session5.saveOrUpdate(emp5);
System.out.println("*****");
//saveOrUpdate example - with transaction
Session session3 = sessionFactory.openSession();
Transaction tx3 = session3.beginTransaction();
Employee emp3 = HibernateSaveExample.getTestEmployee();
session3.saveOrUpdate(emp3);
emp3.setName("Kumar"); //will be saved into DB
System.out.println("9. Before committing saveOrUpdate transaction. Id="+emp3.getId());
tx3.commit();
System.out.println("10. After committing saveOrUpdate transaction");
System.out.println("*****");
Transaction tx4 = session3.beginTransaction();
emp3.setName("Updated Test Name"); //Name changed
emp3.getAddress().setCity("Updated City");
session3.saveOrUpdate(emp3);
emp3.setName("Kumar"); //again changed to previous value, so no Employee update
System.out.println("11. Before committing saveOrUpdate transaction. Id="+emp3.getId());
tx4.commit();
System.out.println("12. After committing saveOrUpdate transaction");
System.out.println("*****");
// Close resources
sessionFactory.close();
}
}
Above program produces following output.
Hibernate: insert into EMPLOYEE (emp_name, emp_salary) values (?, ?)
*****
Hibernate: insert into EMPLOYEE (emp_name, emp_salary) values (?, ?)
9. Before committing saveOrUpdate transaction. Id=166
Hibernate: insert into ADDRESS (address_line1, city, zipcode, emp_id) values (?, ?, ?, ?)
Hibernate: update EMPLOYEE set emp_name=?, emp_salary=? where emp_id=?
10. After committing saveOrUpdate transaction
*****
11. Before committing saveOrUpdate transaction. Id=166
Hibernate: update ADDRESS set address_line1=?, city=?, zipcode=? where emp_id=?
12. After committing saveOrUpdate transaction
*****
Notice that without transaction, only Employee gets saved and address information is lost. With transaction employee object is tracked for any changes, thats why in last call there is no update in Employee table even though the value was changed in between, final value remains same.
Hibernate update should be used where we know that we are only updating the entity information. This operation adds the entity object to persistent context and further changes are tracked and saved when transaction is committed. Let’s check this behavior with a simple program.
package com.journaldev.hibernate.main;
import org.hibernate.Session;
import org.hibernate.SessionFactory;
import org.hibernate.Transaction;
import com.journaldev.hibernate.model.Employee;
import com.journaldev.hibernate.util.HibernateUtil;
public class HibernateUpdateExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Prep Work
SessionFactory sessionFactory = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory();
Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();
Employee emp = (Employee) session.load(Employee.class, new Long(101));
System.out.println("Employee object loaded. " + emp);
tx.commit();
// update example
emp.setName("Updated name");
emp.getAddress().setCity("Bangalore");
Transaction tx7 = session.beginTransaction();
session.update(emp);
emp.setName("Final updated name");
System.out.println("13. Before committing update transaction");
tx7.commit();
System.out.println("14. After committing update transaction");
// Close resources
sessionFactory.close();
}
}
When we execute above program for the first time, we get following output.
Hibernate: select employee0_.emp_id as emp_id1_1_0_, employee0_.emp_name as emp_name2_1_0_, employee0_.emp_salary as emp_sala3_1_0_, address1_.emp_id as emp_id1_0_1_, address1_.address_line1 as address_2_0_1_, address1_.city as city3_0_1_, address1_.zipcode as zipcode4_0_1_ from EMPLOYEE employee0_ left outer join ADDRESS address1_ on employee0_.emp_id=address1_.emp_id where employee0_.emp_id=?
Employee object loaded. Id= 101, Name= Test Emp, Salary= 1000.0, {Address= AddressLine1= Test address1, City=Test City, Zipcode=12121}
13. Before committing update transaction
Hibernate: update EMPLOYEE set emp_name=?, emp_salary=? where emp_id=?
Hibernate: update ADDRESS set address_line1=?, city=?, zipcode=? where emp_id=?
14. After committing update transaction
On further execution, we get following output.
Hibernate: select employee0_.emp_id as emp_id1_1_0_, employee0_.emp_name as emp_name2_1_0_, employee0_.emp_salary as emp_sala3_1_0_, address1_.emp_id as emp_id1_0_1_, address1_.address_line1 as address_2_0_1_, address1_.city as city3_0_1_, address1_.zipcode as zipcode4_0_1_ from EMPLOYEE employee0_ left outer join ADDRESS address1_ on employee0_.emp_id=address1_.emp_id where employee0_.emp_id=?
Employee object loaded. Id= 101, Name= Final updated name, Salary= 1000.0, {Address= AddressLine1= Test address1, City=Bangalore, Zipcode=12121}
13. Before committing update transaction
14. After committing update transaction
Notice that there are no updates fired after first execution because there are no update in values. Also notice the employee name is “Final updated name” that we set after invoking update() method. This confirms that hibernate was tracking the object for any changes and at the time of committing transaction, this value got saved.
Hibernate merge can be used to update existing values, however this method create a copy from the passed entity object and return it. The returned object is part of persistent context and tracked for any changes, passed object is not tracked. This is the major difference with merge() from all other methods. Let’s look at this with a simple program.
package com.journaldev.hibernate.main;
import org.hibernate.Session;
import org.hibernate.SessionFactory;
import org.hibernate.Transaction;
import com.journaldev.hibernate.model.Employee;
import com.journaldev.hibernate.util.HibernateUtil;
public class HibernateMergeExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Prep Work
SessionFactory sessionFactory = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory();
Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();
Employee emp = (Employee) session.load(Employee.class, new Long(101));
System.out.println("Employee object loaded. " + emp);
tx.commit();
//merge example - data already present in tables
emp.setSalary(25000);
Transaction tx8 = session.beginTransaction();
Employee emp4 = (Employee) session.merge(emp);
System.out.println(emp4 == emp); // returns false
emp.setName("Test");
emp4.setName("Kumar");
System.out.println("15. Before committing merge transaction");
tx8.commit();
System.out.println("16. After committing merge transaction");
// Close resources
sessionFactory.close();
}
}
Output in first execution is:
Hibernate: select employee0_.emp_id as emp_id1_1_0_, employee0_.emp_name as emp_name2_1_0_, employee0_.emp_salary as emp_sala3_1_0_, address1_.emp_id as emp_id1_0_1_, address1_.address_line1 as address_2_0_1_, address1_.city as city3_0_1_, address1_.zipcode as zipcode4_0_1_ from EMPLOYEE employee0_ left outer join ADDRESS address1_ on employee0_.emp_id=address1_.emp_id where employee0_.emp_id=?
Employee object loaded. Id= 101, Name= Final updated name, Salary= 1000.0, {Address= AddressLine1= Test address1, City=Bangalore, Zipcode=12121}
false
15. Before committing merge transaction
Hibernate: update EMPLOYEE set emp_name=?, emp_salary=? where emp_id=?
16. After committing merge transaction
In further execution, output produced is:
Hibernate: select employee0_.emp_id as emp_id1_1_0_, employee0_.emp_name as emp_name2_1_0_, employee0_.emp_salary as emp_sala3_1_0_, address1_.emp_id as emp_id1_0_1_, address1_.address_line1 as address_2_0_1_, address1_.city as city3_0_1_, address1_.zipcode as zipcode4_0_1_ from EMPLOYEE employee0_ left outer join ADDRESS address1_ on employee0_.emp_id=address1_.emp_id where employee0_.emp_id=?
Employee object loaded. Id= 101, Name= Kumar, Salary= 25000.0, {Address= AddressLine1= Test address1, City=Bangalore, Zipcode=12121}
false
15. Before committing merge transaction
16. After committing merge transaction
Notice that the entity object returned by merge() is different from the passed entity. Also notice that in further execution, name is “Kumar”, this is because the returned object is tracked for any changes. That’s all for Hibernate Session save
and update
methods, I hope that examples above will help you in clarifying any doubts you have.
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// lets say I wanted to do this: // Create a class that has an in - place method that when invoked will commit a record based on it’s current state. public class Employee { int age; String name; [CONSTRUCTOR…] public void add_record(){ session. = sessionFactory.openSession(); session.save(/* pass the current instance of the class Employee to the session.save() method */); session.commit(); // what would I replace the comment above with to make this class pass itself to save()? } } // I want to enable a developer to do this: Employee sarah = new Employee(22,“Sarah H Smith”); sarah.add_record();
- Richard B Turgid
Used the below code with springmvc but first time it write the object in db but doing it for second time with different value throw a “Unknown Service Exception” Session session = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().openSession(); Transaction t = session.beginTransaction(); session.persist(student); t.commit(); HibernateUtil.shutdown();
- Abhineet
What is the use of inverse keyword in onetomany or manytoone relations in Hibernate?
- Sachin
HibernateUtil i need this class where is this class com.journaldev.hibernate.util.HibernateUtil;
- vishad patel
Hi, I am new to Hibernate. I tried to execute the same code as the one in the tutorial (SAVE without transaction). But it throws the following error: “Transaction Required Exception - no transaction in progress”. Am I missing anything? Please help.
- Suganya
Hi Pankaj, In Hibernate Merge, you mentioned that passed object does not get tracked and only copy of passed object which is not same as passed object is in the context and gets tracked. But on the contradictory side, o/p that is shown on execution of same program again, salary of employee is not same as it was previously. In the program only name is updated of new copy of passed object instance. Could you clarify this?
- Randeepak
Save method doesn’t save anything until flush or commit happen. It only assigns identifier to the entity and saves only when flush or commit is called. You mentioned in the tutorial that it saves the first level entity and doesn’t save the mapped entity. Please correct it.
- Taufique Shaikh
this code works fine with out any error or flaw… referenced entity get saved even without flush in save() method. Person per=new Person(); Address add=new Address(); per.setName(“sfdf”); add.setAddress(“acadf”); per.setAddress(add); add.setPerson1(per); session.save(per);
- tekilaina
Well i’m doing the same thing, Person per=new Person(); Address add=new Address(); add.setAddress(“sohal”); add.setPerson1(per); per.setAddress(add); per.setName(“hello”); session.save(per); it give me exception : object references an unsaved transient instance - save the transient instance before flushing: model.Person.address -> model.Address
- tekilaina
I am inserting my data into Oracle database using hibernate session.save() method but auto increment is provided by database side. In my bean class @Id showing me error how I can solve this problem???
- Akash Mohapatra