JPA EntityManager: Why use persist() over merge()?

Question

EntityManager.merge() can insert new objects and update existing ones.

Why would one want to use persist() (which can only create new objec

Answer 1

Going through the answers there are some details missing regarding `Cascade' and id generation. See question

Also, it is worth mentioning that you can have separate Cascade annotations for merging and persisting: Cascade.MERGE and Cascade.PERSIST which will be treated according to the used method.

The spec is your friend ;)