How to create and handle composite primary key in JPA

Question

I want to have versions from the same data entry. In other words, I want to duplicate the entry with another version number.

id - Version will be the primary key.

How should the entity look like? How can I duplicate it with another version?

id Version ColumnA

1   0      Some data
1   1      Some Other data
2   0      Data 2. Entry
2   1      Data

Answer 1

You can make an Embedded class, which contains your two keys, and then have a reference to that class as EmbeddedId in your Entity.

You would need the @EmbeddedId and @Embeddable annotations.

@Entity
public class YourEntity {
    @EmbeddedId
    private MyKey myKey;

    @Column(name = "ColumnA")
    private String columnA;

    /** Your getters and setters **/
}

@Embeddable
public class MyKey implements Serializable {

    @Column(name = "Id", nullable = false)
    private int id;

    @Column(name = "Version", nullable = false)
    private int version;

    /** getters and setters **/
}

---

Another way to achieve this task is to use @IdClass annotation, and place both your id in that IdClass. Now you can use normal @Id annotation on both the attributes

@Entity
@IdClass(MyKey.class)
public class YourEntity {
   @Id
   private int id;
   @Id
   private int version;

}

public class MyKey implements Serializable {
   private int id;
   private int version;
}