Hibernate Delete or Remove an Entity Example

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In Hibernate, an entity can be removed from a database by calling the Session.delete() or Session.remove(). Using these methods, we can remove a transient or persistent object from the datastore.

This tutorial is upgraded to Hibernate framework 6 and Java 17.

Session.delete(Object object) Method

This method removes the persistent instance from the datastore. The argument may be an instance associated with the receiving Session or a transient instance with an identifier associated with an existing persistent state. This operation cascades to associated instances if the association is mapped with cascade="delete".

EntityManager.remove(Object entity)

This method removes the given entity instance from the database:

Hibernate Delete or Remove an Entity Complete Example

Let's create a Hibernate Maven application to demonstrate the usage of the Session.delete() and Session.remove() methods.

Technologies and tools used

• Hibernate 6.1.7.Final
• IDE - Eclipse
• Maven 3.5.3
• Java 17
• MySQL - 8.0.32

Development Steps

1. Create a Simple Maven Project
2. Project Directory Structure
3. Add jar Dependencies to pom.xml
4. Creating the JPA Entity Class(Persistent class)
5. Create a Hibernate configuration file - Java Configuration
6. Removing an entity using the delete() method
7. Removing an entity using the remove() method
8. Create the Main class and Run an Application

1. Create a Simple Maven Project

Use the How to Create a Simple Maven Project in Eclipse article to create a simple Maven project in Eclipse IDE.

2. Project Directory Structure

The project directory structure for your reference - 

3. Add jar Dependencies to pom.xml

<project
    xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <parent>
        <groupId>net.javaguides.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-tutorial</artifactId>
        <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    </parent>
    <artifactId>hibernate-remove-entity-example</artifactId>
    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/mysql/mysql-connector-java -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>mysql</groupId>
            <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
            <version>8.0.32</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.hibernate/hibernate-core -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
            <version>6.1.7.Final</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
        <sourceDirectory>src/main/java</sourceDirectory>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.5.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>17</source>
                    <target>17</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

4. Creating the JPA Entity Class(Persistent class)

Let's create a Student persistent class that is mapped to a database table.

A simple Persistent class should follow some rules:

• A no-arg constructor: It is recommended that you have a default constructor at least package visibility so that hibernate can create the instance of the Persistent class by newInstance() method.
• Provide an identifier property: It is better to assign an attribute as id. This attribute behaves as a primary key in a database.
• Declare getter and setter methods: The Hibernate recognizes the method by getter and setter method names by default.
• Prefer non-final class: Hibernate uses the concept of proxies, that depend on the persistent class. The application programmer will not be able to use proxies for lazy association fetching.

Create a Student entity class under net.javaguides.hibernate.entity package as follows.

package net.javaguides.hibernate.entity;

import jakarta.persistence.*;

@Entity
@Table(name = "student")
public class Student {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    @Column(name = "id")
    private int id;

    @Column(name = "first_name")
    private String firstName;

    @Column(name = "last_name")
    private String lastName;

    @Column(name = "email")
    private String email;

    public Student() {

    }

    public Student(String firstName, String lastName, String email) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
        this.lastName = lastName;
        this.email = email;
    }

    public int getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(int id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    public String getFirstName() {
        return firstName;
    }

    public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
    }

    public String getLastName() {
        return lastName;
    }

    public void setLastName(String lastName) {
        this.lastName = lastName;
    }

    public String getEmail() {
        return email;
    }

    public void setEmail(String email) {
        this.email = email;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "Student [id=" + id + ", firstName=" + firstName + ", lastName=" + lastName + ", email=" + email + "]";
    }
}

5. Create a Hibernate configuration file - Java Configuration

The HibernateUtil Java configuration file contains information about the database and mapping file.

HibernateUtil is a helper class to bootstrap hibernate SessionFactory.Add the Student entity to MetadataSources for mapping.

package net.javaguides.hibernate.util;

import java.util.Properties;

import org.hibernate.SessionFactory;
import org.hibernate.boot.registry.StandardServiceRegistryBuilder;
import org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration;
import org.hibernate.cfg.Environment;
import org.hibernate.service.ServiceRegistry;

import net.javaguides.hibernate.entity.Student;

public class HibernateUtil {
    private static SessionFactory sessionFactory;
    public static SessionFactory getSessionFactory() {
        if (sessionFactory == null) {
            try {
                Configuration configuration = new Configuration();

                // Hibernate settings equivalent to hibernate.cfg.xml's properties
                Properties settings = new Properties();
                settings.put(Environment.DRIVER, "com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver");
                settings.put(Environment.URL, "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/hibernate_db?useSSL=false");
                settings.put(Environment.USER, "root");
                settings.put(Environment.PASS, "root");
      
                settings.put(Environment.SHOW_SQL, "true");

                settings.put(Environment.CURRENT_SESSION_CONTEXT_CLASS, "thread");

                settings.put(Environment.HBM2DDL_AUTO, "create-drop");

                configuration.setProperties(settings);

                configuration.addAnnotatedClass(Student.class);

                ServiceRegistry serviceRegistry = new StandardServiceRegistryBuilder()
                    .applySettings(configuration.getProperties()).build();

                sessionFactory = configuration.buildSessionFactory(serviceRegistry);
            } catch (Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
        return sessionFactory;
    }
}

6. Removing an entity using the delete() method

The following example deletes transient and persistent objects from the datastore using the Session.delete() method.

package net.javaguides.hibernate.dao;

import org.hibernate.Session;
import org.hibernate.Transaction;

import net.javaguides.hibernate.entity.Student;
import net.javaguides.hibernate.util.HibernateUtil;

public class SessionDeleteExample {
    public void deleteStudent(int id) {
        Transaction transaction = null;
        try (Session session = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().openSession()) {
            // start a transaction
            transaction = session.beginTransaction();

            // Delete a persistent object
            Student student = session.get(Student.class, id);
            if (student != null) {
                session.delete(student);
                System.out.println("student 1 is deleted");
            }

            // Delete a transient object
            Student student2 = new Student();
            student2.setId(2);
            session.delete(student2);
            System.out.println("Student 2 is deleted");

            // commit transaction
            transaction.commit();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            if (transaction != null) {
                transaction.rollback();
            }
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

7. Removing an entity using the remove() method

The following example deletes transient and persistent objects from the datastore using Session.remove() method.

package net.javaguides.hibernate.dao;

import org.hibernate.Session;
import org.hibernate.Transaction;

import net.javaguides.hibernate.entity.Student;
import net.javaguides.hibernate.util.HibernateUtil;

public class SessionRemoveExample {
    public void removeStudent(int id) {
        Transaction transaction = null;
        try (Session session = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().openSession()) {
            // start a transaction
            transaction = session.beginTransaction();

            // Delete a persistent object
            Student student = session.get(Student.class, id);
            if (student != null) {
                session.remove(student);
                System.out.println("student 1 is deleted");
            }

            // Delete a transient object
            Student student2 = new Student();
            student2.setId(2);
            session.remove(student2);
            System.out.println("Student 2 is deleted");

            // commit transaction
            transaction.commit();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            if (transaction != null) {
                transaction.rollback();
            }
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

8. Create the main App class and Run an Application

Let's test Hibernate application to connect the MySQL database.

package net.javaguides.hibernate;

import net.javaguides.hibernate.dao.SessionDeleteExample;
import net.javaguides.hibernate.dao.SessionRemoveExample;
import net.javaguides.hibernate.dao.SessionSaveExample;
import net.javaguides.hibernate.entity.Student;

public class App {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        // first save few records to database
        SessionSaveExample studentDao = new SessionSaveExample();
        Student s1 = new Student("Ramesh", "Fadatare", "rameshfadatare@javaguides.com");
        Student s2 = new Student("John", "Cena", "johncena@javaguides.com");
        studentDao.saveStudent(s1);
        studentDao.saveStudent(s2);

        // delete student
        SessionDeleteExample deleteExample = new SessionDeleteExample();
        deleteExample.deleteStudent(1);

        // delete second student
        SessionRemoveExample persistExample = new SessionRemoveExample();
        persistExample.removeStudent(2);
    }
}

Output

GitHub Repository

The complete source code of this article is available on my GitHub Repository - https://github.com/RameshMF/Hibernate-ORM-Tutorials

Conclusion

In this article, we have created a simple hibernate application to demonstrate the use of Session.delete() and Session.remove() methods.

You can learn more about Hibernate ORM Framework at Hibernate Tutorial.