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JPA - Persisting Entities

[Last Updated: Dec 1, 2017]

A new entity instance becomes both managed and persistent by invoking the EntityManager#persist() method on it.

A a cascading relationship (specified via cascade=PERSIST or cascade=ALL) will also be persisted by this operation operation.

As a result of this operation the target entity is marked to be entered into the database at transaction commit or as a result of the EntityManager#flush() operation, but the new entity will only be visible to other EntityManager instances or other database clients at transaction commit.

Example

The Entity

@Entity
public class Employee {
  @Id
  @GeneratedValue
  private Integer id;
  private String name;
  private String department;
    .............
}

Persisting entity

public class ExampleMain {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
      EntityManagerFactory emf =
              Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("example-unit");
      try {
          persistEntity(emf);
          loadEntities(emf);
      } finally {
          emf.close();
      }
  }

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

      Employee employee = new Employee();
      employee.setName("Maria Dorsey");
      employee.setDepartment("Admin");

      em.getTransaction().begin();
      logPersistentStatus("before persisting", employee, em);
      em.persist(employee);
      logPersistentStatus("after persisting", employee, em);
      em.getTransaction().commit();
      em.close();
  }
    .............
  private static void logPersistentStatus(String msg, Employee employee, EntityManager em) {
      System.out.printf("-- %s --%n", msg);
      System.out.println("employee#id: " + employee.getId());
      System.out.println("EntityManager#contains(): " + em.contains(employee));
  }
    .............
}

Output

-- Persisting Employee entity --
-- before persisting --
employee#id: null
EntityManager#contains(): false
-- after persisting --
employee#id: 1
EntityManager#contains(): true
-- Loading Employee --
Object: Employee{id=1, name='Maria Dorsey', department='Admin'}

Rolling back after persist()

public class ExampleMain2 {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
      EntityManagerFactory emf =
              Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("example-unit");
      try {
          persistEntity(emf);
          loadEntities(emf);
      } finally {
          emf.close();
      }
  }

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

      Employee employee = new Employee();
      employee.setName("Maria Dorsey");
      employee.setDepartment("Admin");

      em.getTransaction().begin();
      logPersistentStatus("before persisting", employee, em);
      em.persist(employee);
      logPersistentStatus("after persisting", employee, em);
      System.out.println("-- rolling back --");
      em.getTransaction().rollback();

      System.out.println("-- persisting second employee --");
      Employee employee2 = new Employee();
      employee2.setName("Tim Don");
      employee2.setDepartment("Sales");

      em.getTransaction().begin();
      logPersistentStatus("before persisting", employee2, em);
      em.persist(employee2);
      logPersistentStatus("after persisting", employee2, em);
      em.getTransaction().commit();
      em.close();
  }
    .............
}

Output

-- Persisting Employee entity --
-- before persisting --
employee#id: null
EntityManager#contains(): false
-- after persisting --
employee#id: 1
EntityManager#contains(): true
-- rolling back --
-- persisting second employee --
-- before persisting --
employee#id: null
EntityManager#contains(): false
-- after persisting --
employee#id: 2
EntityManager#contains(): true
-- Loading Employee --
Object: Employee{id=2, name='Tim Don', department='Sales'}

Example Project

Dependencies and Technologies Used:

  • h2 1.4.196: H2 Database Engine.
  • hibernate-core 5.2.10.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

EntityManager#persist Example Select All Download
  • jpa-persisting-entities
    • src
      • main
        • java
          • com
            • logicbig
              • example
                • ExampleMain.java
          • resources
            • META-INF

    See Also