Can I update another field from setter methods?

mueller · **Joined:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:40 pm **Posts:** 114

I have a Name entity with first, middle, last and full persisted fields. The idea is that I need the full name automatically updated whenever the first, middle or last names are updated. They can never be out of sync. Am I required to use setFull() instead of full = in the calculateFullName() method? Is this the proper way to achieve what I need in hibernate?

Name table
------
Id
First
Middle
Last
Full

Code:

    public void setFirst(String first) {
        this.first = first;
        calculateFullName();
    }

    public void setMiddle(String middle) {
        this.middle = middle;
        calculateFullName();
    }

    public void setLast(String last) {
        this.last = last;
        calculateFullName();
    }

    public void calculateFullName() {
        full = first;
        full = (middle == null ? full : full == null ? middle : " " + middle);
        full = (last == null ? full : full == null ? last : " " + last);
    }

so the setFull(String full) method should actually never be called, unless the calculateFullName() requires its use instead of full =. It's ok if hibernate sets the full field from the database. It should get the same value whether setFull or setFirst is called in either order.

don stevo · **Joined:** Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:07 am **Posts:** 56

If you use JPA you can set the @Transient annotation on the full field or getFull() method to make it non-persistent, and only use the getFull() or calculateFull() method or whatever to get a concatenation of the necessary names.

If you use plain Hibernate, just don't map the full property to the database in the hbm.xml file.

yvangkwheng · **Joined:** Mon Nov 30, 2009 10:13 pm **Posts:** 5

is calculatefull() method feasible?

mueller · **Joined:** Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:40 pm **Posts:** 114

don stevo wrote:

If you use plain Hibernate, just don't map the full property to the database in the hbm.xml file.

the whole point of this is that I end up with a field in the database that is the full name. In the application it's no problem to calculate thr full name whenever I need it, but I can't put a db index on the full name and the query for a full name gets very long and ugly

@yvang, I don't care what the method names are... How does that help?