How to set a default entity property value with Hibernate

Question

How do I set a default value in Hibernate field?

Answer 1

You can use @PrePersist anotation and set the default value in pre-persist stage.

Something like that:

//... some code
private String myProperty;
//... some code

@PrePersist
public void prePersist() {
    if(myProperty == null) //We set default value in case if the value is not set yet.
        myProperty = "Default value";
}

// property methods
@Column(nullable = false) //restricting Null value on database level.
public String getMyProperty() {
    return myProperty;
}

public void setMyProperty(String myProperty) {
    this.myProperty= myProperty;
}

This method is not depend on database type/version underneath the Hibernate. Default value is set before persisting the mapping object.