I have two entity POJOs Student and Course and they are associated with many to many associatoin.

The association was created using the code snippet shown below:

@ManyToMany(targetEntity=Course.class,cascade=CascadeType.ALL)
@JoinTable(name="student_course_map",
joinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="student_id"),
inverseJoinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="course_id")
)
public Collection getCourses()
{
return _courses;
}


@ManyToMany(targetEntity=Student.class,cascade=CascadeType.ALL)
@JoinTable(name="student_course_map",

joinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="course_id"),
inverseJoinColumns=@JoinColumn(name="student_id")
)
public Collection<Student> get_student() {
return _student;
}

The problem is when i delete any student, deletion is done on its corresponding student table as well as association table but deletion is done in course table also i.e corresponding course object is also deleted from the table. But i want the deletion from the student table and association table only.

How can i do that?

If you don't want the course element to be deleted upon the deletion of a student you have the wrong cascade in your mapping:

Try this one instead: