JPA2: Can we use multiple @ElementCollection in an Entity?

Question

Here is the stripped down version of my code:

@Entity
public class Item implements Serializable{

@Id
@GeneratedValue
private long id;

@ElementCollection(fetch=FetchType.EAGER ,targetClass=Cost.class)
@CollectionTable(name="ItemCost", joinColumns = {@JoinColumn(name="itemId")})
private Set<Cost> costs= new HashSet<Cost>();

@ElementCollection(fetch=FetchType.EAGER ,targetClass=ItemLocation.class)
@CollectionTable(name="ItemLocation", joinColumns = {@JoinColumn(name="itemId")})
private Set<ItemLocation> itemLocations;

}

Is the above code allowed? I have two embeddable classes Cost and ItemLocation that I am using with @ElementCollection.

Issue: When I try to run a named query

@NamedQuery(name = "Item.findAll", query = "SELECT i FROM Item i")

I have strange behavior. The records in the second elementcollection (ItemLccation table) are getting doubled (inserted into the table).

Answer 1

What it comes to JPA 2.0, your code is allowed. It is perfectly legal to have more than one collections that are annotated with ElementCollection. Also, it most likely does not have anything to do with problem you have. By the way, to find out is that really your problem, had you tried your code without costs collection?

In which point exactly duplicates in this collection occur first time? If ItemLocation does not define equals&hashcode, duplicates can easily come as result of adding items by yourself.

Possibly you are facing this problem: Primary keys in CollectionTable and chancing type to list and adding @OrderColumn will help.