Org.Hibernate.AnnotationException: No Identifier Specified For Entity I don't have a id in my table

Question

I'm working with a table in a database and that table don't have a primary key or a proper column whith a unique value who can act as a primary key, I don't have permissions to alter that table.

What should I do? I tried putting a @id annotation in a random column and it worked, but I don't know if this is going to bring any trouble later on. what can I do?

My class

@Entity
@Table(name="my_table")
public class TheTable {
@Column (name="name", nullable=false)
    private String name;

    @Id <--- I just put this id in this random column but this column should not be a id column
    @Column (name="anyfield", nullable=false)
    private String anyfield;
}

Answer 1

I had this problem and was using the wrong import for @id:

Make sure it's:

import javax.persistence.Id;

and not:

import org.springframework.data.annotation.Id;

Answer 2

Hibernate is an intermediate to adress SQL databases, and since each row in a sql database should have a unique identifier, hibernate forces you to define one.

Here is an example of a generated primary key, which will be added automatically (do not forget the getter and setter)

@Id 
@GeneratedValue
@Column(name = "id")
private int id;

Since duplicates are not allowed, choosing an arbitrary column is not the way to go.

Answer 3

Also had same issue. The problem was wrong import of @Id annotation. So please make sure that you not only annotate the id but also that you do it with javax.persistence.Id.

Answer 4

JPA (not Hibernate as such) requires all entities to be uniquely identified. Sadly it doesn't allow for what you want.

JDO, on the other hand, does allow a persistable class to map to a table without PK and would handle what you need.

Answer 5

You can solve this using embedded id 

ex:

@Entity
@Table(name = "my_table")
public class MyTable implements Serializable {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

    // @Id
    @Column(name = "id", insertable = false, updatable = false)
    private String id;

    @EmbeddedId
    MYtablePK pk;

    public MYtablePK getPk() {
        return pk;
    }

    public void setPk(MYtablePK pk) {
        this.pk = pk;
    }

    @Column(name = "my_table_FirstName", insertable = false, updatable = false)
    private String name;

    @Transient
    public String getName() {
        return pk.getName();
    }

    public void setName(String mrn) {
        pk.setName(name);
    }
    @Transient
        public String getSeverity() {
        return pk.getSeverity();
    }
    public void setSeverity(String severity) {
        pk.setName(name);
    }

    public String getId() {
        return pk.getId();
    }
    public void setId(String id) {
        this.id = id;
    }
    public String getName() {
        return pk.getName();
    }
    public void setName(String name) {
        tpk.setName(name);
    }
}

@Embeddable
public class MyTablePK implements Serializable{

    /**
     * 
     */
    private static final long serialVersionUID = -1257821517891392898L;
    @Column(name = "id")
    private String id;
    @Column(name = "name")
    private String name;
    @Column(name = "dob")
    private Date dob;
    public Date getdob() {
        return dob;
    }
    public void setdob(Date dob) {
        this.pk.setdob(dob);
    }
    @Column(name = "severity")
    private String severity;
    public String getSeverity() {
        return severity;
    }
    public void setSeverity(String severity) {
        this.severity = severity;
    }

    public String getId() {
        return id;
    }
    public void setId(String id) {
        this.id = id;
    }
    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }
    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name

Answer 6

Its not juts Hibernate - a relational datamodel require primary keys. So what you've got is a broken data model because without a primary key it can't be relational, and this is why its difficult to use with an ORM.

for more info, here

Answer 7

Make sure there is p.k constraint defined for each Entity and check the import statement for Id Annotation. Check Import statement:

import javax.persistence.Id;
@Id
@Column(name="id")
@GeneratedValue 
private int id;

Answer 8

Specify a field annotated with @Id. Every @Entity requires an @Id (This is the primary key in the table). The solution for you is to use @Embeddable instead of @Entity, then you wont need to annotate any column with @Id. Change the import statement from javax.persistence.Entity; to javax.persistence.Embeddable;

Answer 9

Use @Embeddable annotation instead of @Entity if your class mapping is used as readOnly mapping and does not have PK or @EmbeddedKey

//@Entity
@Embeddable
@Table(name = "my_table")
public class MyTable implements Serializable {

}

Answer 10

Basically make sure your Column annotated fields match the database table in question

Answer 11

requirement: table don't have a primary key or a proper column whith a unique value solution: just add a dummy column for your id, and ignore it for the rest of your select statements. imagine such a column is not there for all your requirements that doesnt need a primary key. setup some auto increment mechanism or something based on sequence, for this column. you need: permission to alter table, though, as needed.