What's the difference between the name argument in @Entity and @Table when using JPA?

Question

I\'m using JPA2 and both @Entity and @Table have a name attribute, e. g.:

@Entity(name=\"Foo\")
@Table (name=\"Bar\")
         


        

Answer 1

@Table is optional. @Entity is needed for annotating a POJO class as an entity, but the name attribute is not mandatory.

If you have a class

 @Entity
 class MyEntity {}

A table with name "MyEntity" will be created and the Entity name will be MyEntity. Your JPQL query would be:

 select * from MyEntity

In JPQL you always use the Entity name and by default it is the class name.

if you have a class

 @Entity(name="MyEntityName")
 @Table(name="MyEntityTableName")
 class MyEntity {}

then a table with name MyEntityTableName is created and the entity name is MyEntityName.

Your JPQL query would be :

 select * from MyEntityName