java - Hibernate CollectionOfElements EAGER fetch duplicates elements

Question

I have a class called SynonymMapping which has a collection of values mapped as a CollectionOfElements

@Entity(name = "synonymmapping")
public class SynonymMapping {

    @Id private String keyId;

    //@CollectionOfElements(fetch = FetchType.EAGER)
    @CollectionOfElements
    @JoinTable(name="synonymmappingvalues", joinColumns={@JoinColumn(name="keyId")})
    @Column(name="value", nullable=false)
    @Sort(type=SortType.NATURAL)
    private SortedSet<String> values;

    public SynonymMapping() {
        values = new TreeSet<String>();
    }

    public SynonymMapping(String key, SortedSet<String> values) {
        this();
        this.keyId = key;
        this.values = values;
    }

    public String getKeyId() {
        return keyId;
    }

    public Set<String> getValues() {
        return values;
    }
}

I have a test where I store two SynonymMapping objects to the database and then ask the database to return all saved SynonymMapping objects, expecting to receive the two objects I stored.

When I change the mapping of values to be eager (as shown in in the code by the commented out line) and run the test again, I receive four matches.

I have cleared out the database between runs and I can duplicate this problem swapping between eager and lazy.

I think it has to do with the joins that hibernate creates underneath but I can't find a definite answer online.

Can anyone tell me why an eager fetch is duplicating the objects?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I stepped into the same problem - when you set the FetchType.EAGER for a @CollectionOfElements, the Hibernate tries to get everything in one shot, i.e. using one single query for each entry of element linked to a "master" object. This problem can be successfully solved at a cost of N+1 query, if you add the @Fetch (FetchMode.SELECT) annotation to your collection. In my case I wanted to have a MediaObject entity with a collection of its metadata items (video codec, audio codec, sizes, etc.). The mapping for a metadataItems collection looks as follows:

@CollectionOfElements (targetElement = String.class, fetch = FetchType.EAGER)
@JoinTable(name = "mo_metadata_item", joinColumns = @JoinColumn(name = "media_object_id"))
@MapKey(columns = @Column(name = "name"))
@Column (name = "value")
@Fetch (FetchMode.SELECT)
private Map<String, String> metadataItems = new HashMap<String, String>();