Java Persistence / JPA: @Column vs @Basic

Question

What is the difference between @Column and @Basic annotations in JPA? Can they be used together? Should they be used together? Or does one

Answer 1

It is worth noting that Basic is designed for primitive fields

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Java_Persistence/Basic_Attributes

A basic attribute is one where the attribute class is a simple type such as String, Number, Date or a primitive. A basic attribute's value can map directly to the column value in the database.

The types and conversions supported depend on the JPA implementation and database platform. Any basic attribute using a type that does not map directly to a database type can be serialized to a binary database type.

The easiest way to map a basic attribute in JPA is to do nothing. Any attributes that have no other annotations and do not reference other entities will be automatically mapped as basic, and even serialized if not a basic type. The column name for the attribute will be defaulted, named the same as the attribute name, as uppercase.