Hello ppl. I'm new to hibernate. I was reading the reference and I didn't exactly understand one thing while doing this.
http://www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/v3/re ... orial.html
At the first chapter there is a point where it says:

" Hibernate supports all kinds of collection mappings, a <set> being most common. For a many-to-many association (or n:m entity relationship), an association table is needed. Each row in this table represents a link between a person and an event. The table name is configured with the table attribute of the set element. The identifier column name in the association, for the person's side, is defined with the <key> element, the column name for the event's side with the column attribute of the <many-to-many>. You also have to tell Hibernate the class of the objects in your collection (correct: the class on the other side of the collection of references).

The database schema for this mapping is therefore:"

So the question is...
We create a database with 2 tables and map them. But... if we want to create the many-to-many mapping we have to create the third table before configuring the xml files?? So if this is true, if the DB has already many tables,would this be a cost to the DB,since we would have to create more and more tables?

Thnx in advance!

no you don't have to create a third table

well i tried but i didn't find a positive result. i'll check it tomorrow again. too tired now. will send some feedback.

eh ? a many-to-many does require some kind of table to be in the middle, either an existing one or a new to put the references.

in any case why are you mapping something as a many-to-many if it really isn't ?

i was just reading the tutorial and had this question. i'll search it tomorrow and rate ;)