Many Hibernate mapping elements define optional attributes named length, precision and scale. You can set the length, precision and scale of a column with this attribute.

<property name="zip" length="5"/>

<property name="balance" precision="12" scale="2"/>

Some tags also accept a not-null attribute for generating a NOT NULL constraint on table columns, and a unique attribute for generating UNIQUE constraint on table columns.

<many-to-one name="bar" column="barId" not-null="true"/>

<element column="serialNumber" type="long" not-null="true" unique="true"/>

A unique-key attribute can be used to group columns in a single, unique key constraint. The attribute overrides the name of any generated unique key constraint.

<many-to-one name="org" column="orgId" unique-key="OrgEmployeeId"/>
<property name="employeeId" unique-key="OrgEmployee"/>

An index attribute specifies the name of an index that will be created using the mapped column or columns. Multiple columns can be grouped into the same index by simply specifying the same index name.

<property name="lastName" index="CustName"/>
<property name="firstName" index="CustName"/>

A foreign-key attribute can be used to override the name of any generated foreign key constraint.

<many-to-one name="bar" column="barId" foreign-key="FKFooBar"/>

Many mapping elements also accept a child <column> element. This is particularly useful for mapping multi-column types:

<property name="name" type="my.customtypes.Name"/>
    <column name="last" not-null="true" index="bar_idx" length="30"/>
    <column name="first" not-null="true" index="bar_idx" length="20"/>
    <column name="initial"/>
</property>

The default attribute allows you to specify a default value for a column.You should assign the same value to the mapped property before saving a new instance of the mapped class.

<property name="credits" type="integer" insert="false">
    <column name="credits" default="10"/>
</property>

<version name="version" type="integer" insert="false">
    <column name="version" default="0"/>
</property>

The sql-type attribute allows the user to override the default mapping of a Hibernate type to SQL datatype.

<property name="balance" type="float">
    <column name="balance" sql-type="decimal(13,3)"/>
</property>

The check attribute allows you to specify a check constraint.

<property name="foo" type="integer">
    <column name="foo" check="foo > 10"/>
</property>

<class name="Foo" table="foos" check="bar < 100.0">
    ...
    <property name="bar" type="float"/>
</class>

The following table summarizes these optional attributes.

The <comment> element allows you to specify comments for the generated schema.

<class name="Customer" table="CurCust">
    <comment>Current customers only</comment>
    ...
</class>

<property name="balance">
    <column name="bal">
        <comment>Balance in USD</comment>
    </column>
</property>

This results in a comment on table or comment on column statement in the generated DDL where supported.

The SchemaExport tool writes a DDL script to standard out and/or executes the DDL statements.

The following table displays the SchemaExport command line options

java -cp hibernate_classpaths org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaExport options mapping_files

You can even embed SchemaExport in your application:

Configuration cfg = ....;
new SchemaExport(cfg).create(false, true);

Database properties can be specified:

The needed properties are:

You can call SchemaExport from your Ant build script:

<target name="schemaexport">
    <taskdef name="schemaexport"
        classname="org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaExportTask"
        classpathref="class.path"/>
    
    <schemaexport
        properties="hibernate.properties"
        quiet="no"
        text="no"
        drop="no"
        delimiter=";"
        output="schema-export.sql">
        <fileset dir="src">
            <include name="**/*.hbm.xml"/>
        </fileset>
    </schemaexport>
</target>

The SchemaUpdate tool will update an existing schema with "incremental" changes. The SchemaUpdate depends upon the JDBC metadata API and, as such, will not work with all JDBC drivers.

java -cp hibernate_classpaths org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaUpdate options mapping_files

You can embed SchemaUpdate in your application:

Configuration cfg = ....;
new SchemaUpdate(cfg).execute(false);

You can call SchemaUpdate from the Ant script:

<target name="schemaupdate">
    <taskdef name="schemaupdate"
        classname="org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaUpdateTask"
        classpathref="class.path"/>
    
    <schemaupdate
        properties="hibernate.properties"
        quiet="no">
        <fileset dir="src">
            <include name="**/*.hbm.xml"/>
        </fileset>
    </schemaupdate>
</target>

The SchemaValidator tool will validate that the existing database schema "matches" your mapping documents. The SchemaValidator depends heavily upon the JDBC metadata API and, as such, will not work with all JDBC drivers. This tool is extremely useful for testing.

java -cp hibernate_classpaths org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaValidator options mapping_files

The following table displays the SchemaValidator command line options:

You can embed SchemaValidator in your application:

Configuration cfg = ....;
new SchemaValidator(cfg).validate();

You can call SchemaValidator from the Ant script:

<target name="schemavalidate">
    <taskdef name="schemavalidator"
        classname="org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaValidatorTask"
        classpathref="class.path"/>
    
    <schemavalidator
        properties="hibernate.properties">
        <fileset dir="src">
            <include name="**/*.hbm.xml"/>
        </fileset>
    </schemavalidator>
</target>