A.3. Custom Value Types

In addition to mapping your objects as entities, you can also create classes that are mapped to the database as values within other entities, without their own independent existence. This can be as simple as changing the way an existing type is mapped (because you want to use a different column type or representation), or as complex as splitting a value across multiple columns.

Although you can do this on a case-by-case basis within your mapping documents, the principle of avoiding repeated code argues for encapsulating types you use in more than one place into an actual reusable class. Your class will implement either net.sf.hibernate.UserType or net.sf.hibernate.CompositeUserType. This technique is illustrated in Chapter 7.