What’s the difference between @Column(nullable = false) and @NotNull in hibernate

@Abhishek Uncategorized

@Column(nullable = false)

  1. The @Column annotation is part of the JPA specification, and you already use all required dependencies.So no need to add any extra dependency in your project.
  2. Hibernate doesn’t perform any validation if you annotate an attribute with @Column(nullable = false). This annotation only adds a not null constraint to the database column, if Hibernate creates the database table definition. The database then checks the constraint, when you insert or update a record.
  3. The @Column(nullable = false) annotation only adds a not null constraint to the table definition. Hibernate or any other framework will not perform any validation on the entity attribute. Hibernate just executes the SQL INSERT/UPDATE statement, and the database will validate the constraint. If the entity attribute is null, the SQL statement will fail.

 

@NotNull annotation

  1. The @NotNull annotation is part of the BeanValidation specification. You need to add a dependency to the Hibernate Validator project
  2. The @NotNull annotation triggers a validation by the Bean Validation implementation when a pre-update or a pre-persist lifecycle event gets triggered. So, the validation happens within your Java application.
  3. The @NotNull annotation tells your Bean Validation implementation to check that the attribute is not null. This happens when the pre-update or pre-persist lifecycle event gets triggered. If the validation fails, Hibernate will not execute any SQL statement.

Which one is better?

You should always use the @NotNull annotation, which is defined by the Bean Validation specification. It configures a validation step that gets performed before Hibernate executes the SQL statement.

 

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