2.4. Embeddable types

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Historically Hibernate called these components.
JPA calls them embeddables.
Either way the concept is the same: a composition of values.
For example we might have a Name class that is a composition of first-name and last-name, or an Address class that is a composition of street, city, postal code, etc.

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<div class="title">Usage of the word _embeddable_</div>
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To avoid any confusion with the annotation that marks a given embeddable type, the annotation will be further referred as `@Embeddable`.

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Throughout this chapter and thereafter, for brevity sake, embeddable types may also be referred as _embeddable_.

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<div class="title">Example 78. Simple embeddable type example</div>
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<pre class="prettyprint highlight">`@Embeddable
public class Name {

    private String firstName;

    private String middleName;

    private String lastName;

    ...
}`</pre>
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<pre class="prettyprint highlight">`@Embeddable
public class Address {

    private String line1;

    private String line2;

    @Embedded
    private ZipCode zipCode;

    ...

    @Embeddable
    public static class Zip {

        private String postalCode;

        private String plus4;

        ...
    }
}`</pre>
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An embeddable type is another form of value type, and its lifecycle is bound to a parent entity type, therefore inheriting the attribute access from its parent (for details on attribute access, see [Access strategies](#access-embeddable-types)).

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Embeddable types can be made up of basic values as well as associations, with the caveat that, when used as collection elements, they cannot define collections themselves.

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